


Gingerbread Kisses

by darcangell23, grlnxtdr29



Category: Glee
Genre: A Pinch of Angst, Adam Crawford is scheming, Adam Lambert and Elliott are twins separated at birth, M/M, Rachel Berry is a Drama Queen, Santana is Mellow, Sebastian is a slut, holiday fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:02:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 22,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28208016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darcangell23/pseuds/darcangell23, https://archiveofourown.org/users/grlnxtdr29/pseuds/grlnxtdr29
Summary: Kurt and Blaine are usually friendly rivals in the competitive baking world, but after both of their assistants fall ill shortly before the annual Food Network Gingerbread House contest, they agree to work together, but their competition may try throwing some wrenches into their plans!
Relationships: Kurt Hummel/Blaine Anderson
Comments: 16
Kudos: 19





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Here is my 2020 Christmas story! This is a collaboration with darcangell23. I hope to update daily between now and Christmas day, but she has Covid, and is pretty sick, so the last couple of chapters may be a little late.
> 
> Hope you all enjoy!
> 
> Reviews always Welcome!

**Gingerbread Kisses**

**PROLOGUE**

  
  


“Mumps?” Kurt said, incredulously. “I didn’t know people could still get the mumps!”

“Apparently they can,” Elliott replied, sounding kind of garbled. “I didn’t know my cousin married an anti-vaxxer when I went to his son’s bar mitzvah last weekend. My doctor said that some people who got the vaccine as a kid can still get it later if they are exposed.” 

Kurt let out a frustrated sigh. “Now what am I going to do? The first prelim starts tomorrow, and even though I drew second, I’m supposed to check in with my main assistant no later than eight AM, and Mercedes can’t get off her other job right now! She was going to be my second for the finals.”

“Well, I wouldn’t be much of a friend if I left you out in the cold, would I?” Elliott said, voice sounding pained. “I have the perfect solution.”

Kurt sat down on the couch and held the phone in place with his shoulder as he reached for his cup of tea. “What’s that? And please tell me it doesn’t involve that friend of yours who plays Santa at the mall you keep trying to set me up with.”

Elliott let out a hoarse laugh. “No, not him. I happen to know that one of the other competitors is also down an assistant. The two of you could team up and compete.”

Kurt narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “Who?”

"No one too bad. You two have always gotten along well together, and he’s never gotten sore over you beating him in competition more often than not. I think the two of you will work well together, once you make it clear that you are in charge.”

“Who?” Kurt repeated, running through the list of his usual competitors in his mind.

“Blaine Anderson.”

Kurt frowned. “Blaine? How the hell is he down an assistant?” he asked, knowing that the other man seemed to have a plethora to choose from.

Elliott let out a snort that sounded awkward because like his speech, it came out kind of garbled.

“Apparently he decided to enter with the meerkat, and said meerkat got himself an STD.” Kurt had to wonder how in the world Elliott knew this stuff. But then, he was the kind of guy that worked the scene, in the right way, so he always tended to know the water under bridge information.

Kurt wrinkled his nose. “Well, that’s what he gets for sleeping around so carelessly. What about those two goofballs he works with? What are they called, Niff?”

Elliott had apparently taken a drink of something, as Kurt could hear him swallowing, followed by a little wince. “He was holding them in reserve in case he made the finals. They are out of town right now, and can’t get back by tomorrow.”

Kurt thought about it for a moment. He and Blaine had competed against each other in more than two dozen challenges over the last several years. The shorter man was charismatic, and always seemed to be smiling, and Kurt couldn’t help having the smallest of crushes on him. 

Okay, reality check. Kurt was already half in love with the gorgeous man, but he was pretty sure Blaine was straight. Whenever he saw him at competitions, he always had that pretty Asian girl hanging all over him, calling him ‘Blainey-days,’ and other sickenly sweet nicknames. Considering Kurt’s luck with falling for the wrong guys, it would be just like him to find the perfect man, only to find out they were straight.

“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to call him and ask if he wants to team up.”

He thought he heard Elliott let out a little, muffled cheer on the other end of the line, but chalked it up to the mumps causing his friend to make strange sounds. He said goodbye to his business partner, and looked up the phone number he’d saved to his cell last year but hadn’t gotten the courage to call yet.

A voice picked up on the second ring.

“This had better not be Sebastian again! I told you I’m done with you! So just take your sick, perverted little-”

“Blaine?” Kurt said, interrupting. “It’s Kurt. Kurt Hummel.”

The other man stopped speaking abruptly. “Kurt?” he asked, uncertainly. 

“Yes, I heard you were out an assistant for the challenge this week.”

“Oh,” Blaine mumbled. “Yeah, that slut, Sebastian went and got gonorrhea. So I had to pull out of the competition, because Nick and Jeff are in Reno, opening their new bakery, and Tina can’t take the whole two weeks off.”

While each preliminary only lasted one day, the final competition would take place over five days, and the rules required each competitor and their main assistant to be there for the entire nine days of competition, plus the judging and awards ceremonies. Even when they weren’t competing themselves, they would be in the audience, observing the other competitors.

Kurt cleared his throat. “Well, I may have a solution. My partner, Elliott is out with the mumps, and Mercedes is in the same boat as Tina, and unlike you, I don’t have any other assistants I can call in. I was just going to use a couple culinary students if I made it to the finals, but now I can’t even compete. Unless you’d want to team up with me?”

“Team up with you? Are you serious? That’d be awesome!”

Kurt was surprised by the excitement in the other man’s voice. “Great! Okay, um, wow. So, we should meet up at the hotel tonight and talk about what we’re going to do.”

“Sure. Meet you at seven in the restaurant?”

“Okay, see you there.”

…

Blaine was early, he knew, but he couldn’t help himself. He was going to have dinner with Kurt Hummel! He’d been in awe of the beautiful man ever since the first time they’d competed against each other. Granted, this wasn’t a date. It was just a business dinner. Kurt had a boyfriend. Why would Kurt be interested in boring old Blaine Anderson when he had Elliott? The man was Rockstar glamorous, and exuded sex with every breath he took.

Still, it didn’t stop Blaine from crushing on Kurt. He suspected it was part of the reason why it never bothered him whenever he lost to the other man. But now, the idea of working with him...Kurt was great at winning, without even really trying. So maybe this time, they would both get to win.

Kurt entered the restaurant at seven on the dot, looking as immaculate as ever. Blaine wondered how he had the time to make himself look that put together and still turn up right on time. When he spotted Blaine already waiting at a table, he offered him a smile and headed over.

“Hi,” Kurt said as he took his seat.

“Hi,” Blaine replied, cursing himself for how breathless he sounded. He’d talked to Kurt before just fine so why was he just now falling apart? Especially since he knew this wasn’t a date.

Kurt looked down slightly awkwardly for a moment before he looked back up with a smile. “So, thank you so much for agreeing to do this with me so quickly. Honestly, I thought you might be intimidated.” He chuckled nervously.

“Intimidated?” Blaine repeated. “By you? Nah.” He was playing it cool, but in all honesty, there was some truth. With all the wins under his belt, Kurt could definitely be intimidating.

“So,” Kurt started, taking a sip from the water glass a waiter had just brought him. “Who do you think our celebrity judge will be?” he asked, wanting to keep things on a safe level to start with.

Blaine looked contemplative for a moment. “I don’t know. Honestly, they could have repeats or people who are completely new. But I know there are people that I will just die if they were on the show.”

Kurt laughed. “You and me both,” he said. “I can never tell what they have in store for us.” He gave his head a shake.

“What prelim are we in then?” Blaine asked. He knew which one he and Sebastian had been set for, but when Sebastian had canceled on him and no one else could do it, they’d been replaced with another potential team. They had been slated for the final prelim, North Pole Train Station.

“The second one,” Kurt said. “Which means we have Victorian Christmas.”

Blaine nodded. “That sounds right up your alley,” he said. Kurt laughed and God did the sound just do something to Blaine. He shifted awkwardly in his seat and cleared his throat. “Don’t worry Kurt, I’m sure whatever you come up with will be amazing! And knock the judges’ socks off.”

Kurt laughed again and Blaine really loved that sound. “You mean whatever _we_ come up with.” He had to hand it to Elliott. Blaine was definitely not a terrible choice of a replacement.

Blaine hoped he wasn’t blushing. _We_ sounded really nice coming out of Kurt’s mouth. “So, um. Are we going to duke it out for the lead, or what did you have in mind?”

Kurt let out a little snort of laughter. “Well, we could do rock, paper, scissors, I guess. Best two out of three?”

“You aren’t going to insist on being lead?” Blaine asked. “It was your idea, after all.”

Kurt shrugged. “That wouldn’t be very fair of me, would it?”

Blaine smiled. “Okay. On three…”

Kurt ended up winning, and Blaine was perfectly happy with that. “Okay, boss, what is our design?”

They spent the rest of their meal talking about Kurt’s vision for their piece for competition, and what he needed Blaine to do.


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER ONE**

  
  


“Welcome, competitors, to The Food Network Holiday Gingerbread Challenge! Before we start filming, I’d like to go over the rules once more,” Artie, the producer, stated. “First off, all competitors and their main assistants must remain at the venue during all competitive cycles. At the end of the day, you are free to roam the city at your whim.

“Second, for all prelims and the final, your structure must be ninety percent edible materials, and seventy percent of that must be gingerbread. Your prelim structure must have a minimum height of twenty four inches, and represent your theme. If you proceed to the finals, your structure must meet the minimum requirement of four feet. Now, you were allowed to preshape and bake most of your larger pieces in advance and ship them here. If you have breakage, you will be allowed to remake the pieces, but you will not be granted any additional time.

“You were also allowed to pre-make one-fourth of your edible decorations in advance. You are not allowed to use store bought decorations such as gum drops or molded chocolates. Everything must be made by hand. Are there any questions?” When no one said anything, the man in the wheelchair nodded. “Okay, then. If you are not competing today, take your seats in the audience. Those in prelim one, take your positions.”

Kurt sat beside the curly haired man, wondering who was in this first prelim. He knew almost everyone competing this year, he’d competed against most of them at least once since he entered the competitive baking world, but there were a few he didn’t recognize.

“See anyone who might give us a run for our money?” Blaine asked, leaning in to whisper, and causing a shiver to run down Kurt’s spine as he felt the warm breath on his neck.

Kurt hid the motion with a shrug. “Wes Montgomery is so meticulous with his piping work, but tends to have an austere style. Not sure how that is going to pair up with the first theme of Cozy Cottages. He’s brought David as his assistant this time. David is more of a fly by the seat of his pants decorator, so that could help.

“Santana is also kind of an odd choice for this theme. She’s usually edgier, more of a Picasso than anything, but her wife, Britt, lives in a fantasy world, so again, that could balance them out. I’m not sure what Rachel is doing here at all. She’s not known for this kind of competition. Her vegan bakery does good business, but not sure how that translates to a gingerbread competition,” he said, rounding out the first prelim competitors.

Blaine nodded. “Do you know who we are up against tomorrow?”

Kurt pointed out two men sitting on the other side of the stage. “Noah ‘Puck’ Puckerman, and his assistant, Finn Hudson. Puck usually works on a larger scale. World record large. He competed last year for the Guinness Book of World Records largest gingerbread house competition. Won it by less than half an inch. Not sure how well he’ll do on the small scale decorating. Finn is definitely smarter than he outwardly appears. Sometimes I think his doofus persona is really just a cover, because he’s surprisingly creatively brilliant. Throw him a very intricate idea and he’ll know exactly how to execute it.”

Blaine studied the two men, and nodded. “Who else?”

Kurt looked around for a moment, before spotting the other two men. “Adam Crawford, and his assistant, Chandler Kiehl. I don’t know much about either of them. I competed against Adam once, before you entered the circuit. I think it was a sugar sculpting competition. Chandler is new, so I don’t know what his skills are.”

Before either of them could say anything about any of the other bakers present, the host of the show took the stage, and the director called for silence as filming began.

…

Rachel took a deep breath as they began the introductions. She was nervous, for sure, as this was the first decorating competition she’d ever done. She probably should have started small, with something that wouldn’t be aired on national television, but she’d never been the type not to reach for the stars. And she had Jesse with her. He didn’t know the meaning of the word failure, so she was sure they would win.

She rolled her neck from side to side, shaking off her nerves as the judges were introduced.

“Our first judge needs no introduction in the baking world, legendary sugar and cake artist, Kerry Vincent!”

Rachel had seen the show in previous years, so she knew a bit about what to expect, and Jesse was standing there, not moving or saying anything, but with a look of scrutinization. His go to tactic in a new competition was to size up the judges, so he’d know exactly how to please each one. And that was why he never failed.

“Next, she’s a food columnist and YouTube vlogger who knows every way known to man to make sure food is clean, Emma Pillsbury!”

Jesse scoffed, and muttered under his breath. “What does she do, teach you to wash flour?” 

Rachel gave him a stern look.

“Stop it, Jesse,” she hissed. “Do you want us to be looked at as unfavorable before we even start?”

“And today’s guest judge, chef, author, and scathing critic, Gordon Ramsay!”

Rachel stilled and swallowed heavily. Gordon Ramsay. The man could make or break you with one critique. If he tore her and Jesse apart today, she was sure the bakery would never recover. Rachel’s specialty was delicious vegan baked goods, but with Ramsay judging, maybe she should have considered going a more traditional route.

“They’re letting that snake judge?” Jesse commented and Rachel threw him another stern look. She couldn’t sit here and just accept that Jesse wasn’t taking this seriously.

In the audience, Kurt and Blaine looked at each other, eyes wide in shock. Kurt was silently thanking whatever nonexistent god that would listen that Ramsay would not be judging their prelim.

The host smiled as he addressed the competitors. “You each will have ten hours to assemble and decorate your Cozy Cottage inspired structures. If your pieces break, you will be allowed to rebake them, if you so choose. However, there will be no time reimbursed for the time it takes to make, shape, and bake the replacements.” He covered the other basic rules for the home audience once more. “Bakers, I hope you’re ready for this, because your ten hours start...Now!”

Rachel turned and opened her box and cursed under her breath. The pieces to the fence she’d been planning to build had almost all snapped in half and her walls had cracks in them. Ironically, the only pieces that were fully intact were the roof and the chimney.

“What’s wrong?” Jesse asked, as he pulled some of their pre-made vegan fondant flowers out of another box.

“More than half our pieces are damaged,” Rachel muttered. Vegan gingerbread was very delicate, and didn’t work as well as real gingerbread, but this was her trademark. She sighed heavily. “You get started on the fondant stones for the chimney and roof tiles. I’ll try and bake new fence and wall pieces as fast as I can. If we’re both working on something, it hopefully won’t set us too far behind. I may be able to salvage some of the larger pieces with royal icing.”

Jesse looked like he wanted to say something, but decided better of it and just nodded. Rachel was the boss after all.

…

In the next stall over, Wes Montgomery was examining his pre-made pieces. One of the walls was broken in half. Luckily, that seemed to be the only casualty, and he had another piece he could use that was originally going to be a base under the cottage, but wasn’t necessary. He could trim it down to replace the wall piece.

“That may have just saved us the competition,” David said, and Wes nodded in agreement.

“Okay, I’ll get the extra piece measured and cut to size. You start melting the isomalt to glue everything together, and then paint the pastillage pieces while I assemble.”

David nodded and got to work. Their Cozy Cottage would resemble a birdhouse nestled in the woods, covered in snow, with working lights, including one that would act like a fire when seen through the frosted window panes of the cottage. They would use a small chunk of dry ice to give the effect of smoke coming out of the chimney.

Wes hadn’t intended to become a competitive baker. He’d studied law in college, and had graduated top of his class. It was his fiance who had gotten him interested in building gingerbread houses. She’d asked him to help her and her niece build one to enter in a local competition, and he discovered his hidden talents. They had won the one hundred dollar first prize, and he’d begun studying different types of gingerbread to see which ones worked best for construction, and still tasted good. He’d found one recipe that was heavy on honey and molasses that seemed to have the best durability, while providing an amazing flavor.

He’d won several competitions since then, including this very competition three years ago. This year’s competition was fiercer, though. He wasn’t too worried about Berry and her assistant, but he’d only beaten out Santana by one point the last time he’d gone head to head with her. And he knew that Kurt Hummel was competing in another prelim later this week, although he couldn’t recall which one. He was considered one of the top decorators in the business. And he’d teamed up with Blaine Anderson, apparently. Blaine hadn’t won nearly as many competitions as Hummel had, but he was an up and coming artist to be reckoned with. His carved cakes were masterpieces, and his work defied gravity.

He shook thoughts of the other competitors from his head as he set to work, measuring three times before cutting, so as not to make a mistake.

…

Santana Lopez sighed in relief as she unboxed her pieces. A few of the smaller pieces had broken, but nothing they couldn’t work around. She wasn’t happy to be in the Cozy Cottage themed prelim. She had hoped for the Firehouse one, which would have suited her style better, but the draw didn’t go in her favor. Brittany was happy though, and it had been her design they had decided to go with. Their Cozy Cottage would be whimsically asymmetrical, and be set at the end of a rainbow.

Brittany, ever the bright and happy one, was already busy carving the pre-made rice krispie treats into shape for their rainbow. Each curve would be covered with a different color of chocolate modeling clay. She made sure to pull out all the food coloring.

“We’re going to have the most colorful house Sanny!” she shouted, pumping a fist in the air. “I still wish we could have added the unicorn,” she said with a sigh.

Santana smiled at her, not spoiling the surprise she had for her. She’d sculpted a miniature marzipan unicorn that she would add to the scene just before the end of the competition. How could she deny the love of her life anything?

They worked diligently for the first three hours, until the host called for their attention.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we all love seeing your decorated Gingerbread Houses, but the judges want a little something extra from each of you. It’s time for the Holidays to heat up. We want each of you to make a spiced chocolate treat that you must decorate and incorporate into your scene. You will have ninety minutes to make two dozen spicy goodies, and present them to the judges for tasting! The winner of the mini challenge will win an advantage that could give them the edge on their competition!”

Santana frowned at the interruption, even though she knew it had been coming. There was always a small side challenge to these things. They had not been told in advance what the challenge would be though.

“Spiced chocolate treats. Spice could mean anything from ginger and cloves to chili powder,” she mused, as she and Brittany considered their options.

“Why don’t you make those Aztec Brownies you made last year? Those were delicious, and spicy. And you can add a surprise to it by filling them with your pepper jelly bonbons.”

“Britt! You’re a genius!” Santana kissed her hard on the lips before setting about gathering the ingredients she needed.

…

Rachel crossed her arms over her chest. She should have seen this coming. She was familiar with the show after all. But she was busy trying to remake a bunch of things because stuff kept falling apart, she didn’t have time to make anything else.

“I need a quick recipe,” she said to Jesse, who was attempting to salvage some of the damage with strategically placed frosting and handmade candy elements.

“A quick recipe won’t impress the judges,” Jesse remarked and Rachel let out a frustrated noise.

“I don’t have time for impressing the judges!” she cried, throwing her hands up in exasperation.

Jesse looked at her. “Let me worry about our cottage. You focus on doing that treat for the judges.” Rachel sighed. She supposed she didn’t have any other option. She really did need to win the advantage, whatever it would be.

She pulled out a little book she’d brought with her, flipping through the recipes before she settled on one. Decadent chili dark chocolate cookies. Vegan of course. Hopefully, if she dolloped it with some white chocolate chili vegan cream, it would be just the right touch. And maybe if her treats were good enough, it would be enough to overcome some of the problems with her design.

…

In the audience, Kurt was making mental notes on what treat he would make in this situation, even though he knew their side challenge would be something completely different. He thought maybe he’d do a chili infused hot chocolate mini cake with chili lime buttercream.

“Chili Lime Buttercream would be amazing on a chili chocolate cake,” he heard Blaine murmur from beside him.

“Are you reading my mind? I was just thinking that,” he said quietly.

Blaine looked at him and smiled softly, and Kurt felt a little light headed.

…

“This is the most amazing thing I have ever tasted!” Gordon Ramsay said, beaming approvingly at Wes. “I would never have thought to make a ginger, wasabi, chocolate, cream cheese truffle, but it really worked!” The truffle had been coated in white chocolate and sprinkled all over with the sanding sugar to make it look like a snowball.

Wes smiled and gave a little bow. “Thank you, Chef Ramsay!” He would live on that praise for years to come. Gordon Ramsay liked his creation!

The world famous chef and the other judges moved on to Santana’s station. “And what did you prepare for us?” Kerry Vincent asked.

Santana gave her a wicked grin. “Today I have for you my wife’s favorite Aztec Brownie Bites, with a little surprise in the middle.”

“What makes them Aztec?” Emma asked, examining the brownie bite. It was decorated to look like a Christmas present.

“I added crushed dried chilies and some other spices to the batter, and lowered the sugar level slightly. The Aztecs liked their chocolate on the bitter side, you know.”

Gordon took a bite, and almost immediately his eyes went wide as the heat from the pepper jam touched his tongue. “My god, you are a naughty one, aren’t you? That was a surprise. A pleasant one, but a surprise. This shouldn’t taste so good, but it does. I think you added just the perfect amount of sugar to balance out the spice and bitterness.”

Kerry nodded. “I agree, this definitely heated things up. Good job.” Brittany clapped her hands giddily and Santana kissed her cheek.

The judges moved on to Rachel and Jesse and Kurt was shaking his head. Blaine gave him a concerned look. “Rachel’s station looks like a tornado hit it,” Kurt whispered. “I’m not sure this was the right idea for her first big time on the circuit.” Although Kurt didn’t particularly welcome the idea of having to compete against someone as uptight as Rachel Berry, he would be lying if he said he didn’t feel bad for how things were going for her.

“What do you have for us today Rachel?” Emma asked, expertly schooling her momentary look of disaster as the three judges approached the vegan station.

Rachel was just placing her cookies on a plate and she set it in front of them. “These are decadent dark chocolate chili cookies with white chocolate chili cream, all vegan of course,” she said, trying to sound prouder and more confident than she was at the moment.

Chef Ramsay picked one of the cookies up and examined it, slightly disinterested. “We ask you to blow us away with a spicy chocolate dessert and you give me a cookie?” he asked, that unimpressed tone in his voice.

Rachel swallowed and held her head up. “It was the simplest recipe I had. Unfortunately, we’ve had to rebake a lot of our pieces,” she said with a frown. “I don’t exactly have the time for something much more intricate.”

Ramsay frowned at her. “This is why vegans shouldn’t make gingerbread,” he said. There was a bunch of oohing from the audience at the remark and Rachel swallowed again. “Let us hope they taste good enough to save you, yeah?”

Jesse kept his tongue this time, opting to appear to be too busy in his work on the house to really focus on the possible failure Rachel may have just set them up for.

All three judges bit into a cookie and Ramsay almost immediately spat the bite out. “Young lady,” he said harshly and pointed to the cookie he was holding. “What does that look like to you?” he asked.

Rachel held her own and leaned in. she noticed the middle of the cookie appeared to be a bit wet. “It looks wet,” she said.

“Exactly,” Ramsay said. “That in the middle of this cookie is raw dough. You call yourself an expert baker and you give me a cookie that’s raw. Do you know how dangerous raw cookie dough is?”

The petite brunette held her head up. “That’s vegan cookie dough Chef Ramsay. There is no danger of raw eggs in it,” she quipped. Again, the crowd oohed and Kurt facepalmed.

“First rule of dealing with Gordon Ramsay,” he said.

“Never respond as though you are better than him,” Blaine finished. He was shaking his head at Rachel. “She’s really stepped in it.”

“That’s. Not. The. Point!” Ramsay shouted. He slammed the rest of the cookie into the trash can. “The point is that you served a cookie with raw dough. It is not fully baked, the cream on top is runny, not to mention, you can still see the separate ingredients in both, which suggests it’s been carelessly or haphazardly, mixed. If you’re going to do a simple recipe to save time, then at least devote yourself to doing it well and not giving people a final product that is clearly half-assed!” 

Kurt and Blaine exchanged another look as the three judges went off to a corner to consider who would win the advantage.

“Who do you think is going to win, Wes or Santana?” Blaine asked softly.

“You don’t think Rachel has a shot?” Kurt asked, mockingly. “Seriously though, if I was judging, I’d choose Wes’ truffles. Not very many people would have thought of using wasabi with chocolate. But Santana’s brownies sounded like they were really good, too.”

It only took about three minutes for the judges to make their decision.

“The winner of the mini challenge, and the advantage, is...Santana! While the judges were impressed with both Wes and Santana’s offerings, Santana just edged Wes out with her decorating. This means, Santana, at any point between now and one hour before the end of the competition, you can force both of your opponents to stop working for twenty minutes!”

“What?” Rachel shrieked. “That’s not fair!”

It was Kurt who opted to grace her with a reply. “Do you honestly think you’re going to enter a _competition_ and not face obstacles? Maybe without cameras you might, but this is televised Rachel. There are rules.”

She scoffed at him. “Just because you’ve won more of these competitions than anyone else here, doesn’t mean you’re the expert on what is fair game! I can’t afford to lose twenty minutes!” she practically screamed, stomping her foot.

“Well then maybe you should have done a better job with those cookies,” Blaine remarked, crossing his arms.

Jesse was frowning. “Rachel, it’s not just your business that is on the line here! My reputation is as well! Stop whining. It’s wasting time! Get to work!”

Rachel growled in frustration as the small piece of ginger bread she’d been about to attach to her Thomas Kincade inspired Cottage crumbled in her hands. “Why is this falling apart?” She whined, stomping her foot again.

“There is a reason you don’t use vegan gingerbread for construction,” Wes said, not looking up from his piping bag. “Sure, it tastes okay, but structurally, there is no fat in it to hold it together. Butter and lard are what make the gingerbread strong enough for construction.”

“No one asked you!” Rachel spit out. Wes just shrugged and continued working.

“Whatever. Perhaps next time you enter a competition like this, you’ll do a little research first.”

Rachel continued to rant and mutter over the next three hours until, with two and a half hours left on the clock, Santana called for her advantage. Both Wes and Rachel had to sit down for twenty minutes and watch as the Latina continued to work. Wes chose a seat next to Kurt, as far away from Rachel as possible. David had decided to step outside and call his wife, who was eight months pregnant.

“That woman could drive a Saint to commit murder!” Wes said, wiping sweat from his forehead with a towel, and taking a long drink of water.

Kurt just laughed. “I have to admit, when it comes to vegan bakeries, her’s is one of the best, but she should never have entered this competition. She’d do much better on Cupcake Wars or Sugar Rush.”

Wes nodded. “I heard she got turned down for a loan to expand her bakery, and really needs the fifty grand prize money.”

Kurt frowned. “Why did they turn her down?”

The other man shrugged. “She does good business, but not enough, they said. They were worried she wouldn’t make enough profit to cover the loan.”

Kurt shook his head in disbelief. “Did she really think this was her best option? Her house is falling apart faster than they can patch it up! Forget not winning the fifty grand, her performance is going to nosedive her business.”

“I’m just glad David and I are almost finished with ours,” Wes said. “This twenty minute stop will only set me back a few piped lines.”

“Good luck,” Blaine said. “I’d rather face off with you than Rachel in the finals!”

Wes laughed. “Thanks.”

Kurt patted Blaine’s shoulder gently. “I don’t think we have to worry about possibly competing against Rachel. Unless she pulls a wizarding wand out of her ass, she’s nowhere close to winning this thing.”

…

“Britts,” Santana said with a laugh. “You need to stop eating the frosting.”

The blonde licked her fingers and the Latina had difficulty keeping herself in check. They were on camera after all, in front of a live audience that included their possible competition for the finals.

“But it’s so good, Sanny,” Brittany protested.

The dark haired woman gently took a hold of both her wrists. “I promise, you can eat it later, when all is said and done, okay?” Brittany nodded. “Okay, now go finish dressing the rainbow,” she told her.

Brittany skipped back over to their rice krispie rainbow and then came to a stop. “Um, Santana?” she questioned and the Latina knew immediately something was wrong. Brittany actually sounded serious and she almost never called her wife by her full name anymore.

She hurried over. “What’s wrong Britt?” she asked. Brittany pointed to their rainbow. A large chunk was mysteriously missing. Santana cursed in Spanish before following it up with “What the hell?! We’ve been sabotaged!” The crowd suddenly gasped and Kurt, Blaine, and Wes all glanced at each other with near identical expressions.

The blonde was already starting to cry. Sweet and innocent Brittany. Santana took a moment to pull her into her arms. “It’s okay Britts,” she said. “It’s okay, we can fix this.”

Kurt shot a side-eyed look in Rachel’s direction and he didn’t miss the smug look on her face. “I smell a rat,” he said to Wes and Blaine.

“You think Rachel is dumb enough to sabotage another competitor on camera?” Blaine mused. “She does know they film everything, right?”

Wes shook his head. “She’s not a regular competitor, she may not realize that.”

The pale man was still eyeing Rachel. “After her outburst about Santana’s advantage, I wouldn’t put it past her not to care. Rachel will do anything to come out on top. She plays dirty. Santana may be a bitch, but at least she plays fair.”

“I heard that Hummel!” Santana shouted. “And thank you for the compliment!”

Blaine looked slightly surprised. “She took being called a bitch a compliment?” he asked.

“I was born a bitch!” Santana said. She’d pulled out some extra white modeling chocolate and was quickly fashioning it into a cloud. Her intent to hide the damage was to stick the bad end into the cloud of modeling chocolate.

Wes was shaking his head again. “There’s no doubt that if this costs Santana the win, Rachel will never hear the end of it.”

“She’s also going to get herself banned from televised competition,” Kurt added, still side-eyeing the woman. “It’s in the contract and waivers that you agree not to attempt to secure a win by sabotage or otherwise forcing the defeat of other contestants.”

Blaine looked at Kurt and frowned. “But can’t they only act on that if it’s proven she sabotaged Santana?”

“As I said, they film everything. If Rachel did something, it’s on camera. I’ll bet you that the producer is already having someone screen the footage as we speak.”

Wes nodded. “As such, she’ll probably be officially disqualified.”

As if reading their minds, Artie moved over to where the judges were sitting, along with the host and the director, and the five of them had a quick discussion. The host nodded and stood up. 

“Stop the clock! Santana, stop working for a moment.” Once he had everyone’s attention, he addressed the competitors and audience. “Rachel Berry, we have proof that you sabotaged Santana’s work, causing her to lose time. You are disqualified, and will leave the event area immediately. Santana, you will be granted ten additional minutes to make up for the lost time it took you to repair the damage.”

Rachel crossed her arms where she was sitting. “Are you kidding me? From all the way over here? Where is this proof?” She air quoted the word. Her expression was annoyed and definitely angry and from beside her, Jesse was burying his face in his hands. Did she not care that it was both their reputations on the line here?

Artie rolled forward, an iPad in hand, with various camera shots on it. He tapped on one of the images that had been paused. The video clearly showed Rachel ripping off a portion of the rainbow. “Proof enough?” the producer asked, coldly.

Rachel slid off her chair, face blank and walked up so close to the producer, she invaded his personal space. “You’ll be hearing from my lawyer. Mark my words, this show will be outed and go down for it’s unfair rules and regulations and you will soon be out on the street with no job or house,” she spat in a tone that bordered on deadly.

“Rachel!” Jesse hissed. “Just stop! You read the rules and the contract! You are the one at fault here! And now you’ve not only ruined any chance you had at expanding your business, you’ve ruined MY reputation as well! We’re through!” He stormed out of the building.

The petite brunette stared after Jesse for a moment before glancing around the room. No one seemed to have a sympathetic eye for her. She was used to being hated, but nothing like this. Quietly and quickly, she walked out of the room with her head down. Like hell was she going to let these people and the cameras see her tears.

There were a few moments of awkward silence, and then Artie addressed everyone in the room. “Okay, let’s take a thirty minute break, let everyone regroup, and then we will resume. Wes, Santana, can I speak with you both for a moment?”

Wes glanced at Kurt and Blaine before joining Santana at her work station with the judges and producer. Kurt and Blaine didn’t stick around to hear what was going on, deciding it was a good time to grab a snack and drink.

Elsewhere in the audience, Adam Crawford was studying the entire situation with an unreadable expression on his face. His assistant, Chandler, in turn, was studying him, trying to figure out what was going on in Adam’s head.

“We have to be smart about this,” the British guy said, glancing at Chandler after a moment. “We can’t make it obvious what we’re after.”

“What do you plan to do?” Chandler asked.

Adam smirked. “The one tactic they can’t really get you for,” he said. “Distraction.”

Chandler glanced in the direction that Kurt and Blaine had headed off in. “You want Kurt to lose?” he questioned.

The British man scoffed. “That wouldn’t have to be an option if we weren’t in the same prelim,” he remarked. “But I would much prefer Kurt losing than that goody-two-shoes Blaine Anderson staging me up.” Chandler didn’t say anything so Adam went on. “Once Kurt sees that all Anderson is good for, is costing him a win, then he’ll be falling into my arms and we can become the newest tag team in baking.”

“Are you sure he won’t just go back to using Elliott?” Chandler asked.

Adam snorted. “Please. I have it on good authority, Gilbert lied to him,” he said, studying his nails.

“What?” Chandler was stunned.

The other man let a slow evil-like smile cross his face. “Gilbert lied about why he couldn’t assist Kurt in this competition. I have moles everywhere. But if he really thinks it’s going to pay off and Kurt is going to fall for Anderson, Gilbert is way out of line.”

“Hmph,” Chandler said. “Kurt’s too good for Anderson.”

“Exactly,” Adam responded. “And it’s up to us to prove it to him.”

…

As they returned to their seats to resume, Blaine noticed a few other competitors talking among themselves. “You were telling me about some of the other bakers earlier,” he said, indicating a couple of teams across the stage near Puck and Finn. “What about them? I recognize Will Schuester, but who is that with him?”

Kurt glanced where the hazel eyed man was indicating. “That’s Sheldon Beiste. Don’t let those huge hands deceive you, he’s got the nimblest fingers I’ve ever seen. His gum paste flowers and sculpted flower pots look very realistic. Between him and Will’s skill with an airbrush, I fully expect them to win their prelim, especially since their two competitors are fairly new on the scene.” He pointed to a rather intimidating blonde woman sitting near where Rachel had been earlier. 

“That’s Sue Sylvester. She’s earned a reputation of near flawlessness, but so far hasn’t won a single competition, usually because her work is too perfect. It’s the tiny little touches of whimsy and perfect imperfections that make these structures seem real. I have no idea who her assistant is, though. I’ve never seen her before.”

Blaine nodded. “Who else are they competing against?”

Kurt’s face turned sour. “Dave Karofsky.” The name was almost spat out.

“Tell me how you really feel,” Blaine teased.

Kurt just shook his head. “Sorry. Bad memories. I went to culinary school with him. Made my life a living hell.”

Blaine frowned. “Is he any good?”

“Oh, yeah. When he’s stealing other people’s ideas. He couldn’t come up with an original concept if his life depended on it. I’ll bet you anything whatever he creates will be something someone else has already done.”

“I see. Who is his assistant?”

Kurt’s frown deepened. “Azimio Adams. Another Neanderthal that I could live without ever seeing again.”

Before either of them could say anything further, Artie was calling for everyone’s attention once more.

“After speaking with the judges, and the two remaining competitors, we feel it isn’t fair to give Santana an additional ten minutes and not give Wes the same advantage, since he had nothing to do with the sabotage, so we are going to forego the last ten minutes of the advantage won by Santana. Both competitors will resume working and have the same amount of time on the clock.”

“That’s fair,” Blaine said. They restarted the clock, and the final two bakers set to work putting together their Gingerbread scenes. 

The tension grew thick among the audience as the last few minutes ticked away, and both teams were scrambling to get the last decorations on, and the last lines piped.

“Times up! Step away from the Gingerbread!” the host called out. It was time for judging. “Let’s take a look at Wes’ house first.”

He smiled at the judges. “When I heard the theme, Cozy Cottages, my mind instantly went to cozy little birdhouses, and the line from the song _Sleigh Ride_ about being comfy cozy, snuggled up like two birds of a feather. So my scene is a birdhouse style cottage in the forest, and as you can see, I used my ginger, wasabi, chocolate cream cheese truffles to build a couple of snowmen outside the house. The building is fully lighted, including a tiny fiber optic Christmas tree.”

The three judges studied the two foot tall cottage, surrounded by gingerbread evergreens.

“I love the effect of the flickering lights in the fireplace,” Emma said, smiling. “I just want to shrink myself down and cuddle up with a blanket and a good book in front of it.”

“The frosted effect on the windows is perfect,” Kerry said. “And the dry ice smoke coming out of the chimney is brilliant!”

Gordon was studying a tiny pair of cardinals sitting in one of the trees. “Your attention to detail is breathtaking. Magnificent. Well done!”

They moved on to Santana’s presentation. The Latina smiled. “This is Brittany’s fantasy cottage, complete with marzipan unicorn, and rainbow. My wife is a genius who sees the world a little different than most people do, which is why our cottage zig zags a little.”

Gordan smiled at Britt. “I think a lot of people could benefit from seeing the world a little differently these days. The fact that your structure leans this way and that, adding to the vulnerability of the build, is bloody brilliant.”

“I want to pet your unicorn, it’s so pretty,” Emma exclaimed. Coming from her, this was high praise, as everyone knew of her germaphobia and the fact that she never touched anything without sterilizing it first. Santana beamed at her.

“I can’t find anything to criticize,” Kerry added. “Even with the unfortunate incident, this looks amazing.”

It took much longer for the judges to make a decision, and they came back to examine each gingerbread house several times before they announced that they had chosen a winner.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of the first prelim, the person moving on to the finals later this week, is...Wes!” The audience cheered, and Santana graciously congratulated him. “Santana, the judges loved the whimsy of your presentation, but the amount of detail in Wes’ structure just beat you out.”

The Latina nodded. “Thank you for this opportunity, it’s been fun.”

Brittany hugged her. “It’s okay, we’ll win next year, I’m sure.”

“And that concludes day one of competition. Tune in for more gingerbread excitement next time on Food Network!”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a word on the posting schedule for this. The next chapter will be up Thursday night, and the last two chapters will be posted this weekend.

**CHAPTER TWO**

  
  


“Well, that was certainly the most memorable first prelim ever,” Kurt said as they sat down at the same table from the night before at the hotel restaurant.

Blaine let out a little chuckle. “How much of that do you think will actually be aired?”

“Just enough to ruin Rachel, most likely. I knew she was crazy, I just never realized she was psycho. Personally, I think Santana showed a lot of restraint, but Rachel had better hope she never runs into her in a dark alley somewhere.”

Blaine was about to say something, but paused when his phone began playing  _ I Don’t Know How To Love Him _ . “It’s Tina,” He said, answering it. “Hey, Sweetie. Yeah, we just wrapped up the first prelim a little while ago. You know I’m not allowed to tell you that. No, we aren’t allowed to reveal any information to anyone until the episode airs.”

Kurt tried not to eavesdrop, pretending to study something on his phone, but in his mind he was telling himself off.

_ That’s his GIRLfriend. Remember that. As handsome and kind and funny as he may be, he’s straight, and taken. Don’t you dare go falling for him! _

“Yeah, I’m having dinner with Kurt. Our prelim is tomorrow,” Blaine continued. Blaine rolled his eyes and smiled at Kurt. “Okay. Hon, I gotta go, the waiter is here to take our order. Yes, I’ll call you after the competition. Bye. Yes, Tina! No, definitely not! I’m hanging up now!” He laughed as he disconnected the call.

“Sorry about that. I love her to death, but some days she can drive me nuts.”

They placed their orders, and Kurt took a drink from his glass of water. “So, I forgot to ask you last night, what was your design going to be? I know you had the North Pole Train Station theme. What were your plans?”

“Oh!” Blaine said, picking his phone back up. “Hang on, I have pictures. I did a practice run, minus the decorations.” He pulled up a photo album from his gallery, and showed Kurt. Not only was there a quaint Victorian train station, but there was an actual train, with a steam engine, coal car, Pullman, and caboose.

“Oh my gosh, Blaine, this is amazing!” he said, scrolling through the images. “Wait, does the train actually move?”

Blaine blushed. “Yeah. I was going to use a magnetic hover track system.”

Kurt had a thought. “How big is the train?”

Blaine thought for a moment. “About five inches, not counting the smokestack on the engine.”

“Please tell me you brought your pieces!”

“Yeah, why?”

“Because we’re going to combine our structures!” Kurt said. “My Victorian mansion, and your train and station! I was going to do a village scene, but your design is too good not to be displayed!”

Blaine was shocked. “But will we have time to do everything?”

Kurt was working things out in his head, “If I give up the schoolhouse and hospital from my village design, I think so, as long as we don’t have too much breakage when we unbox tomorrow.”

“You’d be willing to change your entire design just so I could showcase part of mine?” Blaine said, awed.

“Of course!” Kurt said. “It’s almost as if our designs were meant to go together!”

They continued making plans as they ate, and then Kurt walked Blaine to his hotel room.

“Thank you,” Kurt said.

“What for?” Blaine asked.

“For stepping in when Elliott couldn’t be here. If you hadn’t agreed to team up with me, we both would have had to pull out.”

Blaine smiled. “I’m the one who should thank you. Not only are you giving me a chance to compete, you’re willing to use part of my design.”

After a slightly awkward pause, Kurt cleared his throat. “Well, I should say goodnight. We have a long day ahead of us.”

“Goodnight, Kurt.”

…

Eyes watched the taller man as he paced the room, stroking his chin. He hadn’t been expecting the added obstacle of Blaine Anderson. Indeed, the last he’d heard, Blaine had to drop out because his assistant became ill and he couldn’t find a replacement. He hadn’t expected him to team up with Kurt. If he’d known that Kurt was in the same position, he would have volunteered to work with him himself and maybe his assistant could have worked with Blaine so that he could sabotage him from the inside.

“You’re starting to worry me,” his assistant said. “What are we going to do?” he asked.

The taller man paused and turned to look at him for a moment, before his eyes spotted Kurt and Blaine returning to the hotel through the window. He narrowed them. “Stay the course. We knew we’d need the first prelim to figure out a plan of action.”

“Is that going to work?” his assistant asked.

“My goal is not to win, not the competition.” He never tore his eyes from the spot the two had just been standing. “But I will win.”

…

“Welcome back to day two of The Food Network’s Gingerbread Challenge! Today’s challengers have the theme of Victorian Christmas. As always, they will have ten hours to build and decorate their gingerbread masterpieces. Here to judge them, the Queen of Cakes, Kerry Vincent.”

The audience clapped politely.

“Food columnist and vlogger, Emma Pillsbury. And our guest judge for today, recording artist and world renowned performer, Adam Lambert!”

Kurt was surprised when the celebrity judge came out from behind the curtain. He’d seen him before, of course. Who hadn’t heard of Adam Lambert? But now seeing him up close and in person, the first thought that went through his head was, he looks like Elliott. The Rockstar was dressed casually in black jeans and a lightweight green sweater, and no make up like he often wore on stage.

“I never realized before how much he looks like your partner,” Blaine murmured beside him.

Kurt just nodded as the host continued.

“Bakers, are you ready? Your time begins now!”

Kurt and Blaine scrambled to begin unboxing both sets of pre-made parts.

“Wow, think you used enough bubble wrap?” Blaine teased as Kurt began carefully removing his gingerbread pieces.

“Hey, don’t knock it. All my pieces are intact. How about yours?”

Blaine smiled. “All but one lamp post. Thankfully I won’t need it, since we’ll have extras now.” 

Kurt smiled and quickly set about melting the isomalt so they could begin construction on their pieces. Blaine stood and just stared at him for a moment before he shook his head off and started to set up the decorating tools and anything else they were going to need to make their creation spectacular.

At the next station over, Adam Crawford made a show of pulling off the hoodie he’d been wearing, deliberately making sure his shirt pulled up a bit to show the hint of muscles beneath it. Kurt looked up at that exact moment and frowned. He stared blankly at the other man for a moment, temporarily forgetting about what he was trying to do. Why had the other man been wearing a sweatshirt to begin with? Didn’t he realize how hot the studios were with all the lights? The man was up to something, Kurt was certain. But what?

Blaine glanced over, noticing that Kurt seemed to be lost in thought, and that the sugar he’d been melting was bubbling. “Kurt!”

The pale man blinked, and looked over at his teammate. “Huh?”

Blaine smiled at him. “Didn’t sleep well? The sugar’s done.”

Kurt frowned and looked down at the pan, catching the liquid isomalt just before it could burn. “Oh, sorry.”

“It seems he was just enjoying the view,” came a voice, and Blaine turned his head sharply, spotting the British man casually rolling out some fondant. The curly haired man narrowed his eyes. It might have been early, but he smelled a rat.

They began building, Kurt working on his mansion, and Blaine starting on the train station. Blaine decided the best way to keep Adam from distracting Kurt was to get him talking about his design.

“How did you come up with this design? It’s amazing,” Blaine asked.

Kurt smiled fondly as he added a gabled roof. “My mom and I used to build a gingerbread house every year when I was a kid. We would start designing them in May, and we’d start building the day after Thanksgiving.” The smile slipped a little. “This was the house we were going to make when I was eight, but she died before we could build it.”

“I’m really sorry Kurt,” Blaine said gently. He was currently in the process of frosting the funnel for the train engine so the marzipan covering would stick nicely. Kurt offered him a small smile.”Is she the reason you got into competitive baking?”

Kurt nodded slightly. “Partly. It was a way to feel connected to her. But I learned I had a real talent for it, and my little hobby just kind of took over my life.” He shared another smile with the curly haired man. “What about you? How did you get into cake decorating?”

Blaine let out a laugh, eyeing Adam as the man glanced over at the sound and looked back at Kurt as he continued working.

“My brother, Cooper, is kind of a self-centered person. He never liked the fact that I was just naturally more talented than he was and was always proposing ridiculous competitions to prove there was something he was better at,” he said, laughing yet again and looking up at the audience for a moment. “When he failed to bake a cake better than me, he decided to prove he could at least decorate better than I could.”

Kurt laughed. “My dad tried to help me decorate a cake for my step mother’s birthday. His idea of decorating included slim jims and oreo cookies. Tell me your brother at least did better than that?”

Blaine laughed. “Well, oreos aren’t bad for decorating, but it depends on the project. Cooper at least knew what to use. He just didn’t know how to use it.”

“What did he do?”

“It’s easier to just show you than try to explain it,” Blaine said. He pulled his phone out again and found the picture he was looking for, handing it to Kurt.

Kurt studied the image, a look of horror on his face. “What was it supposed to be? Because it looks like a crime scene.”

Blaine took his phone back and slid over so Kurt could see the picture of his. “We were decorating cakes for Valentine’s Day.”

“Aww, that is adorable! How the hell did his end up the way it turned out? It looks like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre!”

The curly haired man laughed as he continued to work. “I told you he had no idea how to decorate or use the tools,” he commented.

Kurt laughed, and began adding the copulas to his building. Blaine noticed that the curved structures were seamless. “How did you shape those without cutting individual pieces?”

Kurt grinned. “It’s a secret. I’ll tell you after the competition.”

Blaine pouted playfully, and Kurt laughed giddily. The curly haired man noticed Adam glaring at him at the sound out of the corner of his eye.

…

Puck and Finn had noticed the interaction between the other two teams, but didn’t get involved as they worked on their house. Puck had competed against Kurt before, and they’d gone to school together. Puck knew that the British man’s over the top flirtation would more likely have the pale man flinching and fleeing for the hills. There was a reason Puck called Kurt ‘Princess.’ He’d seen one gay guy after another think they could ‘conquer’ the icy man, only to be put in their place by a sharp tongue.

“That guy is nuts if he thinks Kurt is going to fall for that,” Finn observed quietly.

Puck snorted. “He’s wasting time, figuratively and literally. He’s never going to finish his house at the rate he’s going.”

Finn glanced over at the structure. There was something vaguely familiar about it, though he couldn’t quite figure out exactly why. Shrugging, he returned to work. 

Both he and Puck knew their chances of winning were slim, but they weren’t in it for the money, unlike some people. They were here for the publicity for their brand. Their company built gingerbread displays for corporations and businesses, and even occasionally for movies. This was just another way for them to get their work out there for people to see.

...

Adam didn’t take his eyes off the other team. “Chandler, hand me the bowl of extra frosting mix,” he said without looking away.

Chandler wasn’t sure what Adam was up to but he handed him the bowl.

The British man moved to the part of his station that was closest to Kurt’s and set the bowl down on the counter, before busying himself with a rolling pin. A few minutes later, he knocked into the bowl, causing it to fall off the counter and land upside down on the floor.

“Oops,” he said. He wet a cloth and walked around, kneeling on the floor in such a way that Kurt got a nice view of his ass. Kurt frowned, wondering why the other man was working like that, knowing it wouldn’t be comfortable on his back as he reached awkwardly to wipe up the mess. 

Blaine was also frowning. “You might want to clean that up a little faster. You are in a timed competition, you know,” the dark haired man said. He was certain the insufferable Brit was being deliberately slow, trying to draw Kurt’s attention again.

Adam glanced back at him over his shoulder. “I like being thorough,” he said, and winked at Kurt.

Blaine gritted his teeth. Clearly, this man was more interested in trying to flirt than he was in winning. He glanced over at the station to look at the pieces of Adam’s project. Something told him he hadn’t entered the competition to win at all.

When Adam had finished cleaning the mess, he slowly rolled himself back up straight and tossed the cloth over his shoulder. “Well,” he said, looking at Kurt with a flirtatious smile. “I better return to making things delectable.”

Blaine mentally gave a little cheer when he saw Kurt roll his eyes and shake his head at the other man’s tactics. Kurt wasn’t falling for it. Yes!

...

“Problems, Crawford?” Puck asked from the station furthest from Kurt’s.

“Mind your business Puckerman!” Adam snapped, moving back to his station, winking at Kurt again and sending him a flirty smile.

Puck let out a snort. “You’re barking up the wrong tree there, Englishman. I know for a fact you don’t stand a chance with that one,” he spoke in a voice that only carried as far as Adam’s station.

The British man narrowed his eyes and glared at him. “And what makes you the expert, Mohawk?”

“Finn, Kurt and I all went to culinary school together. I know his type, and it’s not you.” The other man continued working as he spoke. “He doesn’t go for arrogant, self absorbed assholes, and he’d probably tell you your hair belongs on some dopey sidekick on a CW show.”

...

The three teams worked quickly for the next couple of hours. Blaine finished assembling his train station, and was working on the caboose and Pullman cars, while Kurt continued constructing the mansion itself. Right around the three hour mark, the host called for their attention.

“Holiday parties are a common occurrence during the winter months, full of cocktails and savory Hors d'oeuvres. Today the judges would like you to choose a classic savory amuse-bouche, and turn it into a sweet treat. You’ll need to incorporate your treat into your design. You will have ninety minutes to present your treat to the judges for tasting. Your time begins now!”

Kurt was frowning. “I’m drawing a blank!” he said, sounding a little panicked.

Blaine was going over ideas in his mind, when one really jumped out at him. “Do you trust me?”

Kurt looked at him for a moment, and then smiled a little, and nodded. “What do you have in mind?”

Blaine returned the smile. “I need you to separate half a dozen eggs, whipping the whites, and beating the yolks,” he said, grabbing a package of phyllo dough from the pantry.

…

Adam was frowning. He hadn’t counted on this little twist. He’d assumed the challenge would be similar to the one the day before, but this was completely different. He began running through some of his usual recipes, trying to think of one he could reinvent. “Chandler, start grating some parmigiano reggiano!”

“What are you going to make?” his assistant asked, grabbing the cheese. 

“I have no clue!” The Brit muttered to himself.

…

Puck was laughing. He knew exactly what he was going to make. “Finn, keep building, I got this one!” He rummaged in the refrigerator and pantry for the ingredients he needed. He set to work on something his mom used to make when she was too tired to cook after working two shifts to make ends meet.

Ninety minutes later, he set the treats in front of the judges. “Today I made for you what my family calls trash bars. My mom was a single parent, and she worked three jobs to be able to afford to take care of my sister and me, and some nights she would be too tired to really cook anything, so she would take whatever leftovers we had in the fridge, and make these. The base is a blondie batter, and it’s topped with bacon, cheese, and peanut butter pretzels. It’s topped with a drizzle of maple syrup.”

Kerry was looking at the proffered treat skeptically, but once she took a bite, she smiled. “Despite the unusual name, these are actually quite delicious. How do you plan to incorporate them into your structure?”

Puck gave her his patented flirty smile. “I’m going to use them to look like mulch under the bushes lining the front of my house.”

Emma smiled softly. “So you are going to make them look like dirt?”

“Yes,” Puck said, winking at her.

Adam Lambert laughed. “You really don’t know how to sell a concept, do you? Calling them trash, and then saying they are going to be the dirt under your bushes. But they do taste great, man. Good job!”

They moved on to Adam and Chandler’s station. The blonde haired man put on his most charming smile. “I made classic cheese crisps, and topped them with a prosciutto and salted caramel cheese spread.”

Emma took a bite of the tiny round offering, and almost choked. “Did you taste these before you presented them?”

Adam frowned slightly. “Chandler did. He said they were awesome.”

“I think your assistant needs to have his taste buds checked,” Kerry said, wiping her mouth out with a napkin. “You added salted caramel to salty cheese and salty meat. It’s so salty, it’s practically inedible.”

“Sorry, man, I have to agree. Way too much salt,” their celebrity judge said. Blaine once again mentally cheered as Adam turned a glare on his assistant.

The Judges approached their station, and Kurt smiled at them. “Today, Blaine and I made prosciutto and pistachio cheese custard tarts, with a honey drizzle, and Blaine made them in shredded green phyllo cups that, when you turn them over, look like shrubs.”

Adam Lambert smiled. “These are cute. Your assistant is a genius.”

Kurt laughed nervously. “He is, but he’s not my assistant. Blaine was supposed to be competing in a different prelim, but his assistant got sick, and so did mine.” He regarded the celebrity for a moment. “Forgive me for saying so Mr. Lambert,” he said politely. “But you look an awful lot like my assistant and you sound like him too.”

Adam laughed. “Does he dress like me too?”

Kurt laughed. “I don’t know, have you ever worn a steampunk tuxedo?”

The celebrity shook his head, his eyes bright. “No, but it sounds like something I might wear,” he said.

Kurt laughed so hard, he let out a little snort. “Maybe the two of you are twins who were separated at birth!”

Kerry smiled at them both. “Well, as interesting as that might be, I must say these cheese custard tarts are the best I’ve ever had!”

“Yes,” Emma agreed. “Delicious! The honey and pistachios are the perfect touch, and the prosciutto isn’t overwhelming the flavor.”

“Very creative,” Adam added, smiling at both men.

As the judges moved off to confer, Blaine looked over at Kurt. “Thanks.”

“What for?” Kurt asked, confused.

Blaine shrugged. “Some people might have just taken full credit for making those tarts.”

Kurt gaped at him. “You thought I wouldn’t give you credit? They were your idea, and your recipe!”

Blaine blushed. “I knew you wouldn’t take all the credit, but some people would.”

Kurt smiled. “Well, if we win the mini challenge, I’m buying dinner tonight.”

Blaine laughed. At the same time, he noticed the way Adam was watching them from the next station over. That man was up to something, he just didn’t know what yet.

“It’s time to find out which of our competitors’ savory to sweet treat won the judges over!” the host announced. “The judging was very close once again, but the judges felt one baker’s creation just edged out the others’ in creativity, and that baker is...Kurt!”

“Wow!” Kurt said. “But for the record, it was Blaine’s creation!”

The host nodded in acknowledgement. “Well, this means that at any point between now and the last hour of competition, you can force your opponents to stop working for twenty minutes.”

...

It took all of Adam’s resolve not to shout out loud. The last thing he wanted was to make a scene like Rachel had the day before. He was not that kind of diva. But the plan was to make sure Kurt lost so that Adam could be there to comfort him. Clearly, things were not going as planned.

“Are you kidding?” he said only loud enough so that the judges and teams could hear him. “That wasn’t even his recipe! The baker is supposed to come up with the idea, not the assistant!”

Kerry frowned at him and crossed her arms. “The point of an assistant is to assist. That does not mean they aren’t allowed to come up with ideas.” She moved away, shaking her head. So far, this year’s competition had been full of drama.

Blaine had never hated anyone in his life but it was getting to the point where he felt like strangling the British man every time he opened his mouth. He shifted protectively closer to Kurt who offered him a smile and pushed an extra blueberry into the curly haired man’s mouth. Behind them, Adam grumbled.

…

Puck was studying his building with a frown. “Yo, Finn, does it look like it’s leaning to you?” he asked.

His taller assistant came over to look. “One of the walls looks shorter than the other, by about an eighth of an inch,” he observed. “That’s not good, if you intend to add the third floor. The weight might cause the whole thing to collapse.”

“I don’t have a choice. The third floor is how we make the height requirement. How did this happen?”

Finn considered it for a moment, studying it from every angle, and then pulled a miniature level from his pocket, setting it on the board their structure was sitting on. “That’s the problem,” he said, pointing to the air bubble in vial of liquid. “The board must have warped slightly during transportation.”

“Crap man,” Puck said. “How do we fix it?”

Finn shrugged. “We need to take this part apart and sand the other side down just enough to even it out.”

“I was afraid you were going to say that. If that piece breaks taking it apart, we’re screwed.”

Finn picked up a knife. “Do you want me to do it?”

Puck shook his head. “I’ll do it. If it breaks, it will be my responsibility.”

Finn nodded and handed him the knife. Puck used a torch to heat the blade, in an effort to make cutting through the isomalt that held it together less risky. He took a deep breath and very carefully began cutting the piece away. He was nearly all the way across when the sound of cracking was heard and he froze, looking up at Finn. 

“Oh, crap,” they both said at once.

Finn began pacing as he considered their options. After a moment he paused and looked at the other man. “Can you put the roof on the second floor?”

“Yeah, but that won’t get us the height we need.”

“Don’t worry about that, I have an idea. Go ahead and sand down the wall carefully, and start putting the roof on. I’ve got your back, man!”

…

“How are you doing time wise?” Blaine asked.

Kurt was holding the last roof piece in place with one hand, and using canned air to try and get the isomalt glue to dry faster. “I’m right on schedule, I think. What about you?”

“I think I am ahead of schedule, actually. I just finished the Post office, and the royal icing evergreen swags are already almost dry. I’m about to start assembling the magnets for the track.”

“Awesome!” Kurt said. “You’re amazing, Blaine!”

Blaine blushed at the praise, glad the pale man couldn’t see his face at that moment. He finished putting the track together and did a quick test run to make sure it worked with the Gingerbread train. It ran smoothly, and he smiled at his accomplishment. He glanced at the countdown clock. They had just under four hours left, and he only had one more structure to build, the church from Kurt’s original village layout. It would take him about an hour to build, and then they would spend the last three hours decorating.

...

Things were not going very well at Adam’s station. He may not have entered the competition to win, but that didn’t mean that he was willing to destroy his reputation. “Ugh, I underestimated this stupid competition,” he muttered to Chandler as he attempted to use candy sealant. He didn’t have time to rebake any pieces.

“I told you it would be easier to throw everyone off if we actually put effort into it,” Chandler commented, frosting a roofing tile. Adam threw him a look and Chandler sort of sunk in on himself.

“We need to get rid of Blaine,” the British man replied, staring daggers at the overly cheerful curly haired man. “Is there a way to accidentally burn him?”

Chandler stopped short. He didn’t mind attempting to distract Kurt or any of the harmless things they’d already done. But physically harming someone was where he drew the line. He put down the icing bag he’d been holding and crossed his arms.

“I think you need to think long and hard about that Adam. The way things are going, Blaine could charge you for deliberate intent to harm him,” he told him honestly.

Adam scoffed. “Oh please. That idiot is too oblivious to pick up on something like that.” He rubbed his hands together. After all, Blaine wouldn’t be able to keep helping Kurt if he couldn’t physically touch anything. Time to figure out just how to do this.

…

“What do you think,” Kurt asked quietly as they were both piping and adding the pre-made decorations. “Should I use the advantage now?”

Blaine glanced at the countdown clock again. There was just over ninety minutes left to finish their work. He glanced first at Adam and Chandler’s station, noting they still hadn’t attached their final roof panel, and had only decorated half of what was constructed. He then glanced at Puck and Finn. Their house seemed to be shorter than it should, but it was almost fully decorated. Finn appeared to be building something out of broken pieces of gingerbread.

“I’d say go for it. It looks like Puck and Finn are almost finished, though the annoying twit next to us seems to have wasted so much time trying to get your attention, I doubt he’d finish in three hours, let alone one and a half.”

“Which one?” Kurt asked, absently, as he attached a tiny isomalt ‘icicle’ to the underside of the roof. “The one with the accent, or the overactive puppy?” He’d figured out fairly quickly what the other men were up to. You could only drop your spoon on the floor so many times before it becomes obvious that you are doing it on purpose, although Kurt had no idea why the two would try and get his attention like that.

Blaine chuckled, as Kurt invoked their advantage, causing the other teams to take a seat for the next twenty minutes.

“What do you need me to do next?” Blaine asked. “I’ve finished the decorating on the village buildings, including my train station, and I’ll be done with the train itself as soon as this royal icing hardens on the bunting.”

“Already?” Kurt asked. “Damn, you’re fast. When you’re done with that you can help me with the mansion itself. I think all that’s left are placing the wreaths and piping the final touches, and placing the lamp posts, etcetera.” 

They began working to assemble the village scene and finish decorating the mansion, while in the audience, Adam glared at the curly haired man. He was still trying to figure out a way of getting rid of the little maggot. He couldn’t physically harm him without getting caught on camera, and most likely ending up in jail. Chandler had been right about that. He was beginning to realize he probably couldn’t do anything at all during the actual prelim competition, but after the cameras stopped rolling…

Chandler poked him in the ribs. He’d been so lost in thought, he hadn’t realized the twenty minutes was up.

…

Puck sighed and stepped back as Finn attached the sleigh he’d cobbled together out of the broken parts to the top of the roof. It might actually be just tall enough to meet the two foot tall height requirement, especially with the sack full of presents sitting in it.

“Finn, bro, that was a stroke of brilliance!”

The taller man grinned and bumped fists with him. “I told you I had your back! I just hope it’s tall enough.”

“Even if it’s not, man, no one else could have pulled that off!”

“Thanks, dude.”

…

“This is a disaster,” Adam muttered. He glared over at Kurt and Blaine as the curly haired man reached around the pale man for final touches. Adam gritted his teeth. Kurt was going to be his. He would make sure of that. Maybe he might have to resort to blackmail.

Chandler knew better than to say anything. They were barely halfway done, let alone almost finished and there were only a few moments left.

“Time is up! Hands away from the gingerbread!” The host called out.

…

Kurt had made it a habit never to look at anyone else’s work during a competition. It just distracted and confused him, so it wasn’t until after time had been called that he allowed himself to finally look and see what the other contestants had done. 

Puck’s house seemed disproportionate, and the sleigh was a little oversized for the scene, but the decorations were impeccable. He glanced at the other workstation, and frowned. Adam’s house seemed awfully familiar to Kurt, as unfinished as it was. 

Kurt had an excellent memory, and recalled every design he had ever sketched, whether it was an article of clothing, a floral design, or a gingerbread house. He’d sketched that exact house two years ago, after winning a wedding cake challenge. He’d talked to the couple whose cake he was designing, and they had described their dream house to him, and Kurt had pictured it so clearly in his head, he’d sat down and sketched it, thinking he might use it in a future gingerbread competition. Except he’d left the sketch book sitting out while he’d gone to use the restroom, and when he’d returned, the sketch was gone. Someone had torn it out of his sketchbook.

He thought about confronting the other man about it, but really had no proof, and it wasn’t as if the Brit had any chance of winning with that disaster, anyway.

He smiled as the judges came forward to begin the judging.

“So, tell us about your design, Kurt,” Kerry asked, smiling.

He returned the smile, and flicked the switch under the board that turned on all the lights, and activated the magnets under the train. “Welcome to our Victorian Village. As you can see, the buildings are fully lit, and the train actually moves! I have to give Blaine all the credit for the last part, that was his design. When I saw his concept, I knew I had to incorporate it into my village.”

“This is gorgeous,” Emma proclaimed. “The details are immaculate! I mean, the holly on that wreath is so tiny, but you can see the veins in every leaf!”

“I’m in awe of your train, man!” Adam Lambert said, grinning. “How did you make it move?”

Blaine blushed. “It’s an electromagnet track. Negative magnets propel the train forward.”

“Amazing! Great job, both of you!” He shook their hands.

“I agree,” Kerry said. “I’ve never seen so much detail in such miniature work. Brilliant.”

The judges moved on to Adam’s station, and the smile vanished from Kerry’s face. “Someone needs to learn time management, I think. What happened? How did you not finish?”

Adam held his head up. “We kept dropping things. If you ask me, it feels like someone put grease or oil on all our appliances,” he said, glaring daggers over at Blaine.

“Are you implying that someone sabotaged your work station?” Emma asked.

The Brit’s eyes were still glaring daggers at Blaine. “Yes,” he said.

“Well, we can easily check that with the cameras,” Adam Lambert said, “But I’m not having any trouble holding on to these utensils,” and he picked up several of the items that had been used by the team. “They don’t feel greasy or oily to me.”

Before Adam could respond, Blaine piped up from his and Kurt’s station. He was standing with his arms crossed over his chest. “They’re not greasy. He’s been deliberately dropping things in an attempt to distract Kurt.”

“He’s lying!” Adam declared.

Kerry was frowning. “We will, of course, review the footage, although I am certain it will show no foul play on your utensils. As for your attempts to distract the other contestants, well, that was fairly obvious. Although they seemed to have failed, as Kurt’s display is complete and intact. This was just a failure on your part, start to finish. I’ve never been so disappointed in a competitor before, not even Rachel yesterday.”

Adam growled. “Are you kidding me? That bitch physically cheated!” He didn’t give them a chance to move. “I didn’t come here to be criticized. I came here to get my boyfriend.”

Everyone but Chandler seemed confused by this statement. “What exactly do you mean?” Emma asked.

The Brit stood to his full height. “Kurt is mine. No one else can have him,” he said.

“Excuse me?” Kurt and Blaine both said in unison.

“You heard me. I’m the only one worthy of dating Kurt.”

Kurt had on his most lethal Bitch glare. “I wouldn’t date you if you were the last man on earth. I don’t date greasy toads with CW hair!”

Puck snorted in laughter. “Told ya.” He and Finn exchanged another fist bump.

Blaine stood straighter at hearing Kurt’s words, adding his own glare to the mix.

“See?” Adam pointed suddenly, changing tactics. “He just said greasy! They’re guilty!”

“Hardly proof,” Kerry said. “I suggest you stop before you completely emasculate yourself. As I said, we will review the footage, and before you say anything, we have security cameras filming twenty four/seven, so if anyone entered the area prior to today’s filming, we will know about it.” She turned to the other judges. “Shall we move on?”

They moved on to Puck’s creation. “And what do we have here?” Emma asked.

“This is my Victorian orphanage,” Puck explained, coming up with the concept on the fly, as his original idea didn’t fit the current state of the design. “As you can see, Santa has stopped in to deliver the presents for all the girls and boys.”

“Cute story,” Adam said, smiling. “Tell the truth, you just made that up, didn’t you?”

Puck laughed. “You caught me. We had a little accident with one of the key elements of our original design, and had to improvise.”

“Well,” Kerry said, “I think it’s charming, but does it meet the height requirement?”

“I guess we’re about to find out,” Puck answered, as a production assistant brought out a measuring tape. Kerry took it graciously, and stepped closer to the display. The camera zoomed in.

“Congratulations, two feet exactly,” she informed them, and they breathed a sigh of relief.

While the judges went off to confer, Blaine could feel Adam staring daggers into his back, and it made him feel uncomfortable. Why the taller man seemed to be targeting him, he had no idea. After all, Kurt already had a boyfriend, and it wasn’t Blaine.

It didn’t take the judges nearly as long to decide this time as it did the previous day.

“The winner of our second Food Network Gingerbread challenge prelim is...Kurt and Blaine!”

Kurt couldn’t help throwing his arms around Blaine in a tight hug and it took all the curly haired man’s resolve to keep it platonic.

“I owe you dinner,” Kurt said when they pulled apart, just as Puck and Finn came over to congratulate them.

“Great job!” Puck said.

“You guys deserve it,” Finn added with a nod.

Blaine was blushing. “You mean you didn’t want to win?” he asked.

Puck chuckled. “We only entered to promote our brand. So it doesn’t bother us that we didn’t win. I’m just glad we were able to salvage our problems.”

Kurt was quiet for a moment. “Do you think you can find something out for me?” he asked quietly. He glanced over at Adam and Chandler who seemed to be arguing. Puck followed his gaze.

“What’s up?”

“I think he stole a sketch of mine. The house he was trying to build looks an awful lot like my original idea. But the sketch disappeared while I was in the restroom. Someone ripped it right out of my sketchbook.”

“What a creep,” Finn said, narrowing his eyes at Adam. “I remember that sketch. I thought the house looked familiar. It was after the Nevada wedding challenge, wasn’t it?”

The pale man nodded. “Yes,” he confirmed.

Puck watched Adam and Chandler for a moment. “I’ll see if I can get the sketch back. If we can prove that Adam didn’t even enter with his own idea, he could be banned from competitions, at least temporarily.”

Blaine narrowed his eyes. “Good. I don’t think he should be anywhere near us anymore,” he said.


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER THREE**

  
  
Kurt was laughing and smiling as they ate dinner at the small pizzeria near the hotel, but Blaine could tell that the other man was still upset over the events of earlier. Blaine himself wasn’t too thrilled, especially when he’d realized Adam and Chandler had followed them to the restaurant. He was glad Kurt hadn’t noticed them yet, but Blaine was hyper aware of the two men sitting on the other side of the seating area, behind Kurt’s back. Adam had made certain Blaine had seen him. 

Fortunately, the other man couldn’t do anything at the moment, as there were half a dozen NYPD officers sitting between them. Not that Blaine thought Adam would attack him or anything, and even if he did, Blaine had been boxing since high school. He could take the taller man easily. 

Chandler seemed to be trying to reason with the British man, trying to get him to leave, and finally they did, just as Kurt ordered a slice of cheesecake for dessert.

They walked back to the hotel in silence, as Kurt seemed lost in thought until they were in the elevator.

“I just can’t understand why he would say something like that!” the pale man stated out of the blue.

“Excuse me?” Blaine asked.

“Adam,” Kurt clarified. “Why would he think I would want to date him? I barely know him! And what did he mean, no one else was worthy of me? I mean, there’s nothing special about me.”

Blaine laughed. “Well, actually, I could see where Adam was coming from on that point, at least.” 

Kurt looked at him, confused. “What do you mean?”

“Kurt, you’re a very talented man. You own one of the most successful cake shops in the country. You’re kind, and caring, and any man would have to be blind not to see how good looking you are. I’m sure your boyfriend tells you that a lot.”

Kurt frowned. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”

Now Blaine was frowning. “Isn’t Elliott your boyfriend? You introduced him as your partner.”

The elevator dinged at Kurt’s floor. “Blaine, just because a gay man introduces someone as their partner, it doesn’t necessarily mean domestic partner. Elliott is my business partner. He’s a committed bachelor, and we’re good friends, but that’s all we are.”

“Oh,” Blaine said, stunned. Before he could say anything else, Kurt was exiting the elevator and saying goodnight.

All Blaine could think as he rode up another two floors and made his way to his room was, ‘Kurt doesn’t have a boyfriend. Kurt is single.  _ YES _ !’

…

Kurt smiled when he saw Blaine at breakfast the next morning. The curly haired man was dressed rather nicely in red jeans and a black polo, and he'd done his hair differently, going a little lighter on the hair gel, so that there were some waves to it, without the curls being too wild.

The dark haired man smiled widely as Kurt approached. "Good morning, Kurt, hope you slept well!"

"Good morning, and I did. How about you?"

"I slept great! I hope you don't mind, I already ordered breakfast for us," he said, as a waiter brought Kurt orange juice and coffee.

"Depends on what you ordered," Kurt replied.

Blaine laughed. "Sausage and waffles, which is what you ordered the last two days."

Kurt smiled. "You remember my breakfast order?"

The other man grinned and shrugged. "You're very memorable."

Kurt blushed and tried to hide it by taking a drink of his coffee.

Blaine cleared his throat. "So, today's theme is Christmas at the firehouse, right? You told me who is competing this round, but what about tomorrow's prelim? I know who my replacement is, Lauren Zizes, but who are the other two teams?"

Kurt waited to answer as the waiter brought their food. "Well, besides Zizes and her assistant, Jacob Ben Israel, there is Thad Harwood, and his sidekick, Trent Nixon. Thad likes to think outside the box, so expect something different from him. And then there is Quinn Fabray, and her assistant, Sam Evans. Everyone calls them the Barbie twins. She's very focused, and her sugar work is amazing. Sam is a bit of a loose canon, though, so that will be fun to watch."

…

"Day three of the Food Network's Gingerbread Challenge is about to kick off, and three new teams are ready to get to work!" the host said into the camera. "They’ll be trying to impress our Judges, Sugar and Cake expert, Kerry Vincent. Vlogger and food columnist, Emma Pillsbury. And international recording artist, Christina Aguilera. Bakers, ready? Your time starts now!"

Will Schuester began unboxing his pieces, frowning when he realized one of the key weight bearing pieces was cracked. “I’ll need to rebake that,” he said to Beiste.

“I’ll start on the dough,” his assistant said.

“No, I’ll do that, you start building. Fortunately everything else seems to be intact. Worse comes to worse, I’ll just leave off a couple items.”

“You sure about that, pumpkin?”

Will just nodded and patted the larger man on the shoulder.

…

“Anything broken, Coach?” the shorter blonde woman asked. 

“As if anything would dare break on Sue Sylvester!” the woman in the red tracksuit said. “Start frosting those gingerbread firemen, Becky!”

“Copy that Coach!” Becky responded. She pulled out the frosting and the firemen and started working, though the frosting was getting more on her hands than the gingerbread and Becky kept licking it off.

Sue frowned at her assistant. She loved her, really she did, but Becky still had a lot to learn about competition. “Hey, human cupcake, try using a pastry spatula,” she said, handing the tool over to Becky.

“Right Coach,” the other said, grinning and giggling to herself. Sue wondered if she ought to have found another assistant, but the truth was, she didn’t have anyone else. If her sister was still alive, she would have been Sue’s assistant, hands down, and though Becky was a lot like her sister, Sue was willing to bet Jean would have an easier time with the tasks.

…

“Dude, this isn’t good!” Azimio declared as he pulled out the third broken piece from their box.

Dave Karofsky was frowning. Two of the three pieces were interior walls, which meant they held weight. His design had an open back that would allow people to see the interior of the firehouse, like a dollhouse. “I can just take one of the walls from the second floor and put that on the bottom, I’ll just have to redistribute the weight a little. The other piece is a roof panel. Since the back is open anyway, it’s not really necessary. Although, it did break fairly cleanly. I could sand down the broken edge and just do half the back roof.”

“You don’t want to rebake it?”

“Nah, I think we’ll be fine. Go ahead and get started on the fondant.”

…

“Who do you think is going to win this round?” Blaine asked quietly.

“Right now, with Will having to rebake a key piece, I don’t know. If he can win the advantage, he might finish in time, and he’s won before. Karofsky might use other people’s designs, but he’s no idiot. If he redistributes the weight just right, he could pull it off. Then again, the judges might actually go for Sue’s perfectionism.”

Blaine smiled. “Who do you hope wins?”

Kurt grinned back and lowered his voice. “Honestly, I hope Will pulls it off. I can’t stand the others.”

Blaine laughed softly.

…

Will frowned when he pulled the re-baked piece out of the oven. The dough had puffed up in the center, giving it an odd look.

“Damn, I don’t have time to redo it, either!”

Sheldon glanced over. “Might just be an air bubble. Put it in the dryer and see if it flattens out.”

Will muttered as he slid the gingerbread sheet into the drying box. At the rate things were going, he had to win the advantage if he was going to have any chance of winning the prelim. He took a moment to just close his eyes and take a few deep breaths, then set about assembling the gingerbread fire truck, complete with a working ladder.

After a little more than an hour, he went to check the piece in the dryer, and heaved a sigh of relief when it had flattened out. “Thank goodness,” he said, just as the host was calling for everyone’s attention.

“Bakers, everyone knows that certain smells trigger memories, especially around the Holidays. Today, the judges would like you to make a fragrant treat that invokes a memory of your childhood. You will need to incorporate your treat into your building design, and as usual, you will have ninety minutes to present your treat to the judges. The winner will receive an advantage that could help put them over the top in the competition. Your time begins now!”

…

Sue was frowning. She had a lot of childhood memories, though not many of them were fond. There was one, though, with her sister. “Becky, I need you to get as many oranges, lemons, and limes as you can find in the pantry,” she said, as she began gathering spices, apples, and phyllo dough.

“Whatcha gonna do, Coach?” the younger woman asked.

“I’m going to make Jeannie’s favorite dessert, with a little twist.”

…

Karofsky cursed as the knife he was using to chop the nuts for his challenge treat slipped and cut his thumb. “Crap. Medic!”

The cut was cleaned and quickly bandaged, but he couldn’t use the nuts he’d been chopping, as there was blood on the board and on the blade. He quickly disposed of the contaminated food, sanitized the board and knife, and began again, chopping the pistachios as quickly but safely as he could.

“Is this enough rosemary?” Azimio asked, showing Dave the freshly chopped herb.

“Yes, dump it in and add the eggs.”

…

Will began whipping the egg whites as Sheldon continued constructing their fire house. He was glad he’d thought to look up this particular recipe the night before. It was very versatile, and it would suit the challenge perfectly.

When the judges approached his station ninety minutes later, he smiled and set the plate of chocolate peppermint meringues before them, the scent immediately wafting up from the fluffy treats.

“These are so pretty!” Emma exclaimed, smiling brightly at Will, who seemed a little distracted by the redhead. The meringues looked like little snow covered trees.

“What is the childhood memory behind these treats?” Kerry asked.

Will smiled at her. “When I was a kid, we used to go sledding every Christmas eve, and when we got home, my mom always made us hot chocolate with peppermint marshmallows.”

Christina Aguilera laughed. “My mom always made hot chocolate on Christmas eve too, but she added a splash of peppermint Schnapps and whipped cream. These taste like my mom’s hot chocolate!”

“Delicious, and the scent of peppermint is very refreshing,” Emma said, and Will beamed happily.

They moved on to Sue and Becky’s station, where she offered them what looked like Santa’s bags of toys. “Growing up, our parents weren’t around much, so my sister, Jean, and I would get shipped off to one relative or another for the Holidays. One year, we went to stay with my aunt Milacent, who made mulled cider from cider she pressed herself, and she used the leftover pulp to make apple turnovers. My sister loved those turnovers and the mulled cider, so I’ve combined them into one dish.”

Kerry took a bite of one of the gift sacks. “Wow, that is delicious, and the scent of the citrus peel and spices definitely makes me think of the mulled cider my Mum made when I was a child.”

“I’ve never had mulled cider before,” Christina said, “but I think I want to try it after tasting these.”

“Good job,” Emma said.

As they approached Karofsky’s station, he set a plate before them containing what appeared to be miniature snowballs. “Today I made for you pistachio and rosemary butter cookies, filled with rosemary cream cheese frosting and rolled in powdered sugar. My mom made these every year at Christmas when I was a kid. She learned the recipe from her great grandmother, who would pass these out to all the grandkids as she told stories by the fire on Christmas eve.”

“This is very good!” Christina said. “I love the smell of rosemary, but I’ve never thought of using it in a cookie before. Good job.”

Emma nodded. “Very nice. I’d love to hear some of your great great grandmother’s stories while eating these.”

“My only complaint is I want a glass of milk to wash them down,” Kerry said. “They’re delicious, but the butter is coating my mouth just a little too much.”

It took a lot longer for the judges to come to an agreement this time.

“This has been the hardest decision for the judges yet,” the host said. “All of you presented delicious treats, but the judges had to choose just one, and that baker is...Sue.”

…

Will was disappointed, of course, but he couldn’t let the setback throw him off. He needed to finish the construction on his firehouse, and get as much decorating done as he could. He wasn’t out of this yet.

“I’m going to need your help with this piece,” he said, indicating the piece he’d rebaked.. “I don’t want to risk it breaking while I try gluing it, and it’s not as dry as I’d like, but I don’t have the time to let it sit any longer.”

Together, the two men held the fragile piece and set it in place, using canned air to try and get the isomalt glue to harden faster.

“Okay, let it go,” Will said. Both men took their hands off the piece slowly and held their breath for a moment, but the piece remained in place, and they sighed in relief and patted each other on the back.

…

“I think Will might just pull it off,” Kurt said.

Blaine shrugged beside him. “I think it would have been easier for him if he’d won the advantage, but yeah, I think he might win the prelim, if he starts decorating now. Karofsky still hasn’t done more than assemble his structure, and Sue’s assistant has eaten more frosting than she’s put on the gingerbread.”

…

Karofsky frowned as the center of his building began to sag. It had been a risk not to re-bake the broken pieces, but he’d been so sure he could salvage it without wasting more time. Now he was regretting it. His only chance was if it held up long enough for judging.

“We’ll cover the sag with a fondant rug, and hope the judges don’t notice,” he murmured to Azimio.

“Are you sure, man?”

“Yeah, it’ll be fine.”

“Okay, dude.”

…

Sue glanced at the clock as Becky stood idly by, licking the pastry spatula. She was still doing a better job getting frosting in her stomach than on their display. It was likely to be a bit on the bare side, but that didn’t bother Sue. Bare tended to fit her style.

“Okay cupcake factory,” she said to Becky. “I say we give butt chin and the gorilla twins some much needed time off.” She smirked as she decided to use her advantage. Sure, it was only twenty minutes, but it was twenty minutes that would do her a lot of good.

As the other two teams moved to sit down, her smirk widened. “The only one left standing. This is why all the other cheer coaches fear me, Becky.” She looked at her assistant. “Why aren’t those firemen standing up yet?”

“I’m trying Coach, but this is really hard,” Becky said.

Sue grabbed a bullhorn from under her station. “You think this is hard? Try auditioning for the role of Marilyn Monroe and being told you don’t have the assets or the youth. That’s hard!”

Becky returned to trying to set up the firemen, but she was having a hard time keeping the laughter off her face. When did Sue ever think she could play Marilyn Monroe?

…

Once the twenty minutes was up, Will and Beiste set to work putting the finishing touches on their decorations. Along with the ladder truck, there was an old pickup truck parked in front of their fire house, painted red, with the fire fighter logo on the door, and a Christmas tree poking out the back end.

They were adding the small details to their scene when a loud cracking sound and swearing came from Karofsky’s station. Will glanced up just enough to see that part of the other man’s house had caved in, and there were only three minutes left on the clock.

“That’s unfortunate,” he said, returning to the task he was working on.

…

Kurt glanced at Blaine as the timer counted down the last thirty seconds. There was no way Karofsky could win now, and while Kurt hated the man, he kind of felt sorry for him. That was not something he’d wish on his worst enemy in this competition.

“Time’s up! Hands off and step away from the gingerbread!” the host said.

The judges approached Karofsky’s station first.

“It seems you’ve had a bit of bad luck,” Kerry stated.

Dave nodded. “Unfortunately the weight was just a little off, and one side of the floor collapsed.”

“Can you tell us what it was supposed to have looked like?” Christina asked.

“It was the sleeping area for the firemen. There were some little cots with stockings hanging off the footboards, and a small Christmas tree in the center that was going to light up.”

“That sounds adorable,” Emma said. “I’m sorry we didn’t get to see it.”

They moved on to Will’s station next. “As you can see, the firemen have just returned to the fire house after putting out a fire, and are hanging the hoses out, and getting ready to relax and enjoy their Christmas dinner at the firehouse.”

“This is amazing, will!” Emma exclaimed, studying the ladder truck with its long ladder extended.

“Your attention to detail is remarkable,” Kerry said. “The fact that you sculpted your firemen out of modeling chocolate really makes them seem lifelike!”

“There is a full Christmas dinner on that tiny table, including a goose!” Christina said in awe. “You can actually see tiny little cranberries in the cranberry sauce! I want to know where you hid the shrink ray, because there is no way that isn’t a real feast, miniaturized and set out on that table!”

Will laughed and thanked her for the compliment, before they moved on to Sue’s station.

Sue’s firehouse appeared to be a square cinder block building with flat gingerbread men firefighters placed randomly, it seemed. While the building was decorated for Christmas, there was nothing spectacular about it.

“I’m a bit confused,” Kerry said. “What part of this display makes it Christmas at the firehouse?”

Sue grinned. “This part,” and flipped a switch. Suddenly the gingerbread building burst into flames, causing Emma and Christina both to jump back slightly, startled. A moment later, the hose held by one of the two dimensional firemen began spewing water on the burning structure.

Kerry, raised an eyebrow. “I’m not exactly sure that was what the theme called for, but it is definitely unique!”

As the judges went to confer, the other contestants in the audience began talking among themselves about the displays.

“Well,” Wes said from behind Kurt and Blaine, “that was definitely a ‘fire’ house, just not in the sense of the word we all thought.”

“I definitely didn’t expect that,” Kurt stated.

The judges came back with their verdict rather quickly.

“The winner of the third prelim in our Gingerbread Challenge is...Will! Congratulations!”

Before the cameras flipped off, Sue walked up to Will and started singing,  _ The Winner Takes It All _ .

Once the cameras were off, Kurt and Blaine went to congratulate Will on his victory.

“Thanks,” he said. “That was definitely one of the most unusual prelims so far.”

“But surprisingly drama free,” Kurt noted, shaking the older man’s hand.

As they walked back to the hotel a short time later, Blaine grinned. “Well, three down, and just one more prelim to go before the finals.”

Kurt couldn’t help smiling back. Blaine had seemed to smile a lot more today, and it just did something to his insides, and he had to constantly remind himself that Blaine was straight, and taken, but each time it had been harder and harder to remember that.

“I can’t wait to find out who our last competitor will be in the finals. But right now, I’m starving. Where do you want to eat?”

Before Blaine could answer, however, another voice cut in.

“Blainey! I missed you!”

And the next thing Kurt knew, a petite Asian woman had thrown herself into Blaine’s arms and kissed him soundly on the lips. His smile faltered at the reminder of the fact that Blaine would never be his.  “I guess I’ll leave you two to catch up. I’ll just order room service, I guess.” He walked away quickly before either of them could see the disappointment on his face.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up. I wanted to have the story completed the weekend after Christmas, but I burned my finger, and while it wasn't severe, the location, right in the bend of my knuckle, made typing difficult. And then both my co author and I had health issues and computer problems. I hope to have the final chapter up by this weekend, if things go as planned.
> 
> Reviews are always welcome!

**CHAPTER FOUR**

  
  


“Kurt?” Blaine called out, knocking on the other man’s hotel room door a short time later. The pale man didn’t answer right away, and Blaine wondered if there was something wrong, but after a moment, the door opened slightly. The first thing Blaine noticed was that Kurt’s eyes were puffy and red, as if he’d been crying. “Kurt, what’s wrong?”

“Oh, nothing, sorry,” Kurt said, wiping at his face. “I was just watching something sappy on TV. Guess I got a little emotional. Did you need something?”

“Yeah, we need to talk about what we’re going to do for the finals. I thought we’d talk about it over dinner.”

“Oh, uh, I already ordered room service. I figured you’d be spending time with Tina tonight.”

Blaine frowned. “Tina knows we have a competition to prep for. She’s gone back to her room, says she’s tired from running the office single handedly for the last week.”

“Well, uh,” the pale man glanced over his shoulder, and Blaine got the distinct feeling Kurt didn’t want him seeing into his room for some reason. Was there someone else in there? And if so, why would Kurt look like he’d been crying? 

“Kurt, are you sure everything is okay?”

“I’m fine. Give me ten minutes to freshen up and I’ll meet you in the bar, okay?”

Blaine felt a little disappointed, but nodded. “Okay, see you there.”

…

Kurt leaned against the closed door for a moment, taking a deep breath. He wasn’t sure Blaine had bought his line about watching something sappy on TV, but there was no way the other man could know Kurt had been crying about the fact that he’d met the most perfect man, and as usual, the guy was straight.

Pushing himself away from the door, he went into his bathroom and splashed cold water on his face, and then deftly applied concealer around his red rimmed eyes. Blaine probably thought Kurt was the stereotypical overly emotional gay guy now

He debated briefly whether to change his clothes, but talked himself out of it, What was the point? He grabbed his key and wallet and headed for the bar. When he arrived, he was surprised to find that Blaine wasn’t alone, although he was relieved to see that it wasn’t Tina with the other man.

“Kurt!” Puck greeted as he approached the bar. “Good to see you, man. I come bearing gifts!” The mohawked man handed Kurt a piece of folded paper.

Finn smiled at him as he took it. “That Adam dude is a real whack job, but Puck convinced him to give back your drawing.”

Kurt unfolded the sheet of paper, and studied the drawing. “How did you manage that?”

Puck just shrugged. “Details,” he said simply, clearly an indicator that he wasn’t going to go into it, which made Kurt worry he might have done something illegal. He brushed it off.

“So, what did I miss?” he asked, trying his best to hide that he was still feeling a bit chagrined about the whole Blaine and Tina thing.

“Finn and Puck were just saying how they ran into Mike on the way here,” Blaine said.

Kurt didn’t know who this Mike guy was. “Who?” he asked, flagging down the bartender so that he could order a drink.

Blaine was slightly surprised that Kurt didn’t know who Mike was. It was Finn who answered.

“Mike’s here to see Tina. It’s been a while so when Blaine made plans with you and unexpectedly us, she called him up.”

Kurt was quiet. Who was this Mike to Tina? Finn said it had been a while. Could he be her brother or something? He couldn’t possibly be dating her because she was dating Blaine, right? He decided it wasn’t really his place to pry and nodded his head.

“Anyway,” Blaine said, “I was going to ask if you were still planning on using a couple of culinary assistants for the finals? Cause if you want, Nick and Jeff will be here tomorrow. We could use them, and Mercedes, of course. And Tina could be the fifth.”

“Oh,” Kurt said, surprised by his words. This wasn’t what he’d been expecting. But of course Blaine was only there to talk about their strategy. He felt his heart sink a little in his chest. “Right, right, that sounds fine with me.” It wasn’t like he really had anybody else to bring on. Blaine had more assistants than he did and Elliott was still sick as far as Kurt knew.

“Great,” Blaine said, as the bartender brought Kurt’s drink. “That’s settled then. I know they won’t tell us the theme for finals until after tomorrow’s competition, but I thought we could talk over some ideas that could be adapted for whatever the theme will be.”

Kurt nodded and drank half his rum and coke in one gulp.

“Are you sure everything is okay, Kurt?” Blaine asked, studying the pale man.

“Yeah, sorry, you mentioned assistants, and I just realized I haven’t called Elliott in days to see how he’s doing.”

“He seemed fine when we saw him a little while ago,” Finn said, taking a drink of his beer.

“What?” Kurt said, turning to the taller man, a confused frown on his face.

“Yeah,” Puck said, nodding. “He was making out with some dude outside the hotel just a few minutes before you got here.”

“Would you excuse me for a moment?” Kurt said, turning away and heading to the exit. He glanced around the outside of the hotel, but didn’t see his friend slash business partner anywhere. Maybe Puck and Finn were mistaken. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed Elliott’s number, but before he could hit send, someone called his name. He turned to the voice, surprised when he spotted Mercedes just inside the lobby.

“Cedes, You’re early! I wasn’t expecting you till tomorrow night!” 

The Diva shrugged. “I finished a day early, and thought I’d surprise you. How are things working out with Blaine?”

Kurt frowned. “What do you mean?”

She gave him a confused look. “I mean, how are things going with him as your assistant? What did you think I meant?”

“Oh, yeah, he’s great. He’s got skills, and he’s very creative. You should see the train he built out of gingerbread!” He led her into the bar, where Blaine was now waiting alone. “Where’d Puck and Finn go?”

“They decided to go get something to eat. Finn was complaining he was starving,” Blaine said, smiling at Mercedes. After Kurt made the formal introductions, they sat down to talk about ideas for the finale.

…

Kurt had a headache when he came downstairs for breakfast the next morning. He probably shouldn’t have ordered the second rum and coke. He ordered coffee before he even sat down at the table with Mercedes and Blaine.

“Where’s Tina?” he asked, sitting with his back to the window so the glare of the sun wouldn’t make his head hurt worse. He probably shouldn’t have let Blaine order him that shot of Tequila.

“She and Mike went shopping, since we don’t need her until tomorrow. She’s excited to work with you, by the way. She wants to learn your secret to making fondant animals that look so realistic she expects them to run off your cakes. Which reminds me, you were going to tell me how you made your copulas seamless!”

Mercedes giggled. “You may get to find out first hand this week, depending on what the theme for finals is.” Kurt smiled, despite the throbbing in his head. He probably shouldn’t have had that glass of wine with Mercedes after Blaine left the night before.

He ordered more coffee to go after they ate breakfast, and by the time they reached the studio for the fourth prelim, his head was feeling much better. The aspirin he took just before they left the hotel helped a lot. They were among the last people to take their seats.

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to day four of The Food Network’s Gingerbread Challenge! Today’s theme is North Pole Train Station, and our competitors will have ten hours to complete their interpretations. Let’s meet our judges. Everyone’s favorite cake decorator, Kerry Vincent!”

The audience applauded as the older woman waved.

“Food columnist and vlogger, Emma Pillsbury!”

Another round of applause. “And finally, Grammy winning artist, Katy Perry!”

Blaine cried out in dismay. “I could have had my work judged by my idol!”

Kurt patted him on the shoulder.

“Competitors ready? Your time begins now!”

…

Lauren frowned as she began unboxing her pieces. They were intact, but some seemed to have warped. 

“Can you still use them?” Jacob asked. 

The former wrestler shrugged. “Maybe, but I don’t want to take any chances. Why don’t you start mixing a batch of dough.”

The bushy haired man nodded and went to work gathering the ingredients they would need.

“Looks like it was just the three walls and part of the overhang that warped,” Lauren said, finishing unboxing. “Unfortunately the pastillage will need to be redone as well, most of it broke or got crushed.”

…

“Thank goodness, everything seems to be intact!” Thad said. He’d been worried when he saw his box sitting beside his station that morning with a huge dent in one corner where it had been damaged in transit.

“Well, almost everything,” Trent said, looking at the gum paste wreath that was going to adorn the front of their train. It had split in two. “I think I can fix this with a bit of royal icing. If necessary, I can cover the cracks with a modeling chocolate ribbon.”

Thad nodded. “Sounds good! Let’s get this started!”

…

“What should we do?” Sam asked, looking at the four broken panels they’d just unboxed. 

Quinn was frowning. “I’ll have to re-bake them, there’s no other option. You get started setting up the base, and we can work on the fondant and modeling chocolate pieces while they bake.”

“Okay, boss!”

All three teams went to work, mostly in silence, as they either re-baked broken pieces or worked on other aspects of their builds. In the audience, Blaine was still pouting about not getting the chance to have his idol see his work. Kurt wanted to kiss the pout off his face.

He mentally slapped himself for the thought.

…

“This isn’t good!” Lauren said, glaring at the gingerbread she’d just pulled from the oven. Two of the pieces hadn’t held their shape. “These look even worse than the two pieces they are supposed to replace!”

Jacob looked over her shoulder, a feat in and of itself, considering their size differences. “Maybe you can sand the originals down?”

Lauren gave a huff. “We may have to. I don’t have enough time to make another batch!” She shoved the pan with the still hot pieces into the drying rack and went back to her station to re-examine the two pieces. “Bring me the saw and file, and my measuring tape.”

…

Trent was concentrating on the task before him, his tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth as he piped very delicate filigree trellises that would adorn their train station overhangs. He was so focused on what he was doing, he didn’t notice the smell of something burning until he heard Thad begin swearing.

“Crap, I set the temperature wrong on the stove!” The baker scrambled to pull the pan of isomalt from the burner, but it was clearly too late to save it. Smoke was wafting up from the charred mess.

“Do we have enough to start over?” Trent asked.

“Just barely, I think.”

“If you need extra Isomalt, I have some to spare,” Quinn said from the next station over, where she was working with hot sugar herself. “As long as it’s not green, that is.”

Thad smiled at her. “If you have clear, I can dye it.”

She smiled and indicated the canister on the end of her work station. “Help yourself.”

“Thank you, that’s really generous of you.”

Sam moved closer to her as the other man moved back to his station. “I think he’s smitten with you.”

The blonde woman blushed. “Shut up and check the oven,” she said in a teasing tone of voice.

Sam laughed and went to pull their re-made gingerbread from the oven. He was just sliding it into the dryer rack when the host called for everyone’s attention.

“Christmas is a time for surprises, so today the judges want you to surprise them with a filled treat with a surprise inside. You will have ninety minutes to make your surprise treats, which you will have to incorporate into your design, and the winner of this challenge will win an advantage.”

Quinn frowned as she continued working the hot sugar. She couldn’t really stop what she was doing right then, or the sugar would harden and she’d have to rework it.

“Just tell me what you want me to do, boss,” Sam said. 

She thought about it for a moment. “Do we have any of that Bourbon left?”

Sam laughed. “Enough for what I think you are thinking of. The Bananas?”

Quinn smiled at him. “You read my mind.”

…

“Needs something more,” Lauren said, tasting the filling for her Galaktoboureko, a Greek custard pie. “Bring me the Ouzo.”

Jacob handed her the alcohol, and watched her stir a healthy amount into the custard, along with some cinnamon, cardamom, chopped pistachios, and orange zest.

“Have you ever made it like this before?” he asked.

Lauren just shrugged as she continued to stir the mixture over medium high heat. “Nope. First time for everything, though, right?”

…

Thad glared at the bowl of chocolate ganache, which had ceased up when he’d added the kirsche to it. That wasn’t good. He had to change his plans on the fly. He scraped out the ganache and switched to plan B quickly. Instead of chocolate ganache, he’d do a dark chocolate mousse for his filling, and make a gelee out of the kirsche. The base was a brownie bite. He’d cover the treats in red and orange meringue, and toast them, making them look like flames in his fire pits that would be on either end of his train station.

At the end of the ninety minutes, Thad placed a plate of treats before the judges. They did resemble flames.

“I have for you mini meringues with a dark chocolate mousse filling, and a little surprise in the middle.”

Kerry took a bite, smiling when the kirsche gelee hit her tongue. “Delicious! The combination of the dark chocolate mousse and brownie bite mixed with the cherry flavoring of the kirsche is just perfect. My only critique would be that the textures of the meringue and mousse are too similar, and you needed just a little something extra to add a little more crunch.” 

Thad nodded in acknowledgment of her statement, as Katy finished her meringue. “I love these. I’d like to order two dozen more to be delivered to my hotel room tonight.”

Thad laughed giddily at her praise.

“Great taste, although a little messy to eat,” Emma said, using a wet wipe to clean the sticky meringue from her fingers.

The judges moved on to Quinn’s station. She smiled and set a plate in front of them with what appeared to be little gift wrapped packages on it. “I made peanut butter and banana sandwich cookies, and dipped them in white chocolate.”

Katy grinned as she took a bite. “That’s a nice kick of Bourbon in those bananas. It pairs well with the peanut butter, gives it a little bit of a smoky taste. The bananas add just the right amount of sweetness to make it not be too savory.”

“I think you all are trying to get us drunk,” Emma said, giving a little laugh.

“Delicious cookie,” Kerry commented. “I agree with Katy, the bananas are just the added touch of sweetness to balance this out. Good job.”

They finally came to Lauren’s station. “Today I made for you Galaktoboureko, although instead of making it into a pie, I’ve made pastry sachets and filled them with the custard, to which I added cinnamon, cardamom, a little orange zest, and a little splash of ouzo.”

“A little splash of ouzo?” Emma said, speech slightly slurred.

Katy laughed. “I think maybe you added more than a little splash. I don’t think I’ll be driving after this.”

“Delicious,” Kerry said, and immediately covered a little hiccup.

The audience laughed as the judges went off to confer.

“What would you have made?” Blaine asked softly.

“I think Thad had the right idea, although I would have skipped the brownie and gone for a cookie base. Quinn’s peanut butter banana sounds like a good idea too. But I probably would have done a mini cupcake instead of a sandwich cookie.” 

“The judges have made their decision, and the winner of the mini challenge and the advantage is...Quinn!” 

Sam shouted and high fived the blonde woman, as the audience applauded. “That will help make up some of the time we lost re-baking those pieces.”

Quinn nodded. “Let’s start assembling, and pray the new pieces have had enough time to dry.”

The three teams worked diligently for the next few hours, until Quinn called for her advantage with just under two hours left. Thad and Trent had just left their work station and were heading for seats in the audience when a loud crash came from Lauren’s station, followed by a string of muffled curses.

Everyone turned to see what had happened. Lauren’s structure had collapsed in on itself. The sanded panels had ended up too thin to handle the weight of the structure.

“Oh my god,” Kurt said. “There’s no way they can rebuild in time!”

“Poor Lauren,” Blaine said.

Sam only took a moment to spare a glance and frowned, looking over at Quinn, who was shaking her head without taking her eyes off her work.

“Guess that leaves only two of us in this race now,” Quinn said quietly, so only Sam could hear. Though she didn’t mean anything malicious by it. It had been years since she was really that malicious person and sometimes, she scolded herself for having been that way.

“I can’t say I don’t feel bad for them,” Sam responded, picking up the modeling chocolate he’d been working with.

“Oh dear,” Trent said, his hands going up to his chubby cheeks. “Should we maybe offer her our extra pieces? Happy face, happy race!” he said to Thad.

Thad frowned slightly. He knew Trent was the kind of person to jump in and help when someone was in need. But he wasn’t entirely confident with their own structure and was thinking they might need their extra pieces themselves.

“I don’t know,” he said finally.

Lauren and Jacob spent the entire twenty minutes down time strategizing in the corner, but the former wrestler seemed resolved to her fate. When the official signaled them that it was nearly time for them to return to work, Lauren held her head up straight, and made a beeline for the judges.

“As much as I hate to admit defeat, there is no way I can rebuild and present a respectable showpiece to you all. Therefore, I am withdrawing from the competition. I would like to offer anything they can salvage from our piece to Thad and Quinn, if you will allow it.”

All three of the judges were rather impressed with the woman’s decision. They knew it must have been hard for her to back out, even though she might have had a point.

“Is there a reason your structure ended up as unstable as it was?” Kerry asked.

Lauren shrugged. “My original pieces warped after packing. I tried to re-bake them, but those pieces didn’t hold their shape during baking, so I decided to sand and re-shape the originals. Unfortunately this caused the pieces to be thinner, and the weight was too much for them.”

“Well I’m sorry things have not been going in your favor,” Kerry replied. “Due to your honorable decision, we will allow the remaining contestants to use whatever they think they can from your piece.”

Lauren nodded, as Kerry stood and addressed the remaining two teams. “Lauren has pulled out of the competition, and has graciously offered to let the remaining two teams to scavenge any parts of her structure they can salvage, if needed.”

“What do you think?” Sam asked Quinn. “Do we need anything?”

Quinn glanced around their station. “I don’t think so, but if you want to see if they have a spare flagpole, just in case, that would be good.”

Trent was eagerly awaiting what Thad’s instructions would be on this, as he continued to work on what he’d been doing before the time out.

Thad studied their supplies and turned to look at Trent. “See if they have any more icing sealant. I didn’t realize I forgot to bring some and it’s a good thing to have in a tricky spot,” he said. 

The last hour of competition was a flurry of movement and murmured instructions and inquiries. As the clock counted down the last minute, each of the two remaining teams rushed to add the final, last minute details.

“Time’s up, step away from the Gingerbread!” The host called. Trent let go of the last holly leaf he’d been attempting to place on the train station, which fell off at the last second.

They approached Thad’s station first. His train station resembled the one from The Polar Express, and had little modeling chocolate Elves rushing about. There was an engine, coal car, and several passenger cars, but unlike Blaine’s train, it didn’t move.

“I have to ask,” Kerry started, “How did you manage to remember this movie in such detail?”

Thad laughed. “My niece makes me watch it at least a dozen times every December.”

“That’ll do it,” Katy said with a laugh. “I particularly love how all the elves have a touch of individuality to them so it’s like they have different personalities.”

Thad smiled at the praise. “That’s all Trent’s work. He’s a master at expressions.” Katy smiled at the other man, who ducked his head, a blush coloring his cheeks.

“The only negative thing I really have to say,” Emma said. “Is that it’s too bad you couldn’t get all your holly to stay. It makes the train look slightly under decorated.”

“Yeah, just needed ten more seconds, unfortunately,” Thad said.

The judges moved on to Quinn’s station. Her train station was much more whimsical. The train looked like a toy train you might find circling around the base of your Christmas Tree. The station itself was decorated as, well, a gingerbread house. She also had Elves running around her platform, although hers looked a little more cartoonish. Above the station a flagpole held a flag made of rice paper that depicted a candy cane striped pole, like the one Tim Allen encountered in The Santa Clause. Her display was decorated with pulled sugar trees that were dusted in snow.

“This is absolutely beautiful, Quinn,” Emma said. “And it’s so joyful and fun and brings out the childlike quality of Christmas.”

“Thank you. I was imagining what my Daughter, Beth would have imagined.”

Kerry smiled at her. “I think that was a very smart point of view. Christmas has always kind of been the best time to act like a kid again. I really like the attention to detail. It gives the whole scene that spark of playful personality.”

Quinn smiled and bowed her head at the acknowledgement. “Thank you, that means so much coming from you.”

“I wish I had a wand so I could shrink myself and join your fantastic elves,” Katy said.

Quinn just laughed, and shook the other woman’s hand.

“I think Quinn has it in the bag,” Blaine observed as the judges went off to confer.

“I think you’re right,” Kurt agreed. “She’s the one I’m most concerned about in the finals, too. Wes and Will are good, but Quinn is the only one who has ever come close to beating me in this competition.”

“I thought Wes won a few years ago.”

Kurt nodded. “That was the year I didn’t compete because of my dad’s cancer scare.”

Before either of them could say anything more, the host announced that a decision had been made. 

“That was fast,” Blaine observed.

“The fourth finalist in this year’s Food Network Gingerbread Challenge is...Quinn! Congratulations!”

Sam hugged his boss, whispering in her ear. “Don’t look now but your secret crush is waiting to congratulate you as well!”

She blushed as the other man approached. “Congratulations, you deserve it. Perhaps some day you can teach me how to pull sugar like that.”

Quinn smiled at him. “I think I can arrange that.”

Once the cameras were off, Kerry Vincent called for everyone’s attention. “Would all the finalists and their assistants please remain behind. The rest of you may go.”

Wes and David, Kurt and Blaine, and Will and Beiste joined Quinn and Sam at their station. Once the rest of the audience had cleared out, Kerry and Emma faced the four finalists.

“As you all know,” Kerry began, “finals begin tomorrow morning at eight. I suggest you come prepared, because the theme for finals is very ambitious. Your structures must be a minimum of four feet tall. If you are short even a fraction of an inch, you will be disqualified.”

“And you really don’t want to be disqualified,” Emma said with a smile. “Our special guest judge for the finals is an expert on this theme, so we’ll let him reveal it. Chris, would you come out now?”

“I came out years ago,” the celebrity judge said as he emerged from behind the curtain. He smiled and waved at the finalists, doing a double take when he saw Kurt. “Oh my god, there are two of me!”

Kurt was stunned as he looked at the other man. “This is even more confusing than Elliott and Adam Lambert being twins.”

Chris Colfer laughed. “Adam told me about that, but he didn’t tell me about you being my doppelganger.”

Kerry was looking from one man to the other. “Why do I feel like I stumbled into The Parent Trap movie?” She shook her head to clear it, and then cleared her throat. “Anyway, for those who don’t already recognize him, this is Chris Colfer, actor, singer, and best selling author. Chris, why don’t you inform our bakers what their theme will be.”

Chris smiled and nodded. “As I hope most of you know, I wrote a series of books based on classic fairy tales that did quite well. I’m something of an expert in the field, so I can’t wait to see your Fairy Tale Castles come to life!”


End file.
